Born From Above - Dan Weaver

Good morning and greetings and the precious name of Jesus

this morning. It's privileged to be here this morning. I

appreciated the songs and devotional thoughts under school that all

went along with the topic i'd like to look at

this morning. I want to open your bibles to John three,

very familiar passage. I had someone gave me a list

one time of topics that should be preached about every year.

I think included in that was there should be a

salvation message. It's not saying one preacher has to preach

all these if you have but a salvation message, a

message on a Christian home, non resistance, separation are a

few that I remember. But I was looking recently how

long it's been since I've preached a message specifically about salvation.

And it's been a long time, and I know there's

been different aspects of it come out in different messages,

which is good. And so what I would like to

do is basically look at John three and look at

Jesus teaching here and keep it a simple, a simple message.

I would like to keep the message as simple as

Christ did. And the interesting thing about the doctrine of

salvation is it's it's it can be as simple as

as Christ's died to redeem us. But there's so many

aspects of it that have we can go, so deep

we can have there's been theologian stymied about aspects of it,

and it seems like it can take it far enough

that it seems like any of any of the different

trails you go down. You take it far enough, you

get into error, and it's my goal to not go there.

But this need of this of salvation was brought out

in Sunday school this morning in Acts three. I might

refer to that another time or so, but three nineteen

repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.

And the last song we started out was out of

my bondage sorrow and Knight, Jesus, I come into thy freedom,

gladness and light, Jesus I come. And it's that simple

aspect that we were considering this morning. So I'll be

looking at the first twenty one versus John three, referring

to a few other passages, but primarily will be in

John three this morning. And we know this story, we

know the setting of Nicodemus. Nicodemus was the was the

he was a ruler of the Jews. Speaks of him

being a part of the Sanhedron. He was one of

the seventy Elite, and he came to Jesus by night.

And for years I've had this picture of because you know,

Jesus taught and by the Sea of Galilee, and he

was in this little and actually I think it was

either a Bible school book or a Sunday school story

or my own imagination. I'm not sure which, but I

visualize Nicodemus coming down to Jesus as Jesus was sitting

in a boat and getting in the boat and talking

to him at night. But this is most likely by Jerusalem,

and it's probably not the setting at all. In fact,

there's historians that say it was probably at the time

of Passover, because Jesus would have traveled to Jerusalem and

industry at the time of Passover, and Nicodemus, as part

of the Sanhedron, would have been in Jerusalem and he

came to him at night. And the historians say that

that on the Mount of Olives there was a thousand

campfires over the time of the Passover. Now, I was

trying to dig a little deeper on that I wanted

to just give this. Josephus talks about the thousand campfires

around Jerusalem at the time of the Roman occupation seventy

a d. Before the fall of Jerusalem. It may be

that historians are borrowing from that and using their imagination

as well. But if we go one two three years later,

we're after the Last Supper, Jesus went to the Mount

of Olives. He went to the where there was a garden,

the garden of Many there and and it said where

he resorted off with his disciples. And it is it

is documented in history that that around Jerusalem, the hills

around Jerusalem were a campfire. And and to also with

Judas leading the group the bandits to find Jesus and

kissing him. It seems like it could give credibility that

there were other people on the Mount of Olives that night.

But I think it would be more accurate to say

that Jesus, as a as a guest of Jerusalem over

the past over, was probably staying outside the city and

Nicodemus came to him at night. I'm going to read

these verse twenty one verses now, John three one to

twenty one. 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 or teacher, we

know that thou art a teacher, come from God. For

no man can do these things that thou doest except

God be with him. Do these miracles that thou doest,

except God be with him. Jesus answered and said, unto him,

very 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 to the accept, a man be born of

water and 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 say unto thee. He must be

born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and now

here's the sound thereof. But canst not tell whence it

cometh and whether it goeth. So is everyone that is

born of the spirit. Nicodemus answered and said to him,

how can these things be? Jesus answered and said, unto him,

art they all a master if Israel? And know us

not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee we

speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen,

and he received not our witness. If I have told

you earthly things, and he believe not, how shall ye

believe if I tell you heavenly things. And no man

hath to send it up to heaven, but he that

came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, which

is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent

in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man

be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,

but have everlasting life. For God so loved the world

that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth

in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For

God sent not his son into the world to condemn

the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

He that believeth on him is not condemned. But he

that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not

believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

And this is the condemnation that light has come into

the world. And men love darkness rather than light, because

their deeds are evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth

the light. Neither cometh to the light lest his deeds

should be approved. But he that doeth truth cometh to

the light, and is that his deeds may be made manifest,

that they are wrought in God. So we see Nicodemus

coming in the beginning of this, as we mentioned part

of the Sanhedrin, a ruler of the Jews. And Jesus

called him a great teacher as well, a master of Israel.

You with a pH d, a Jewish man, a Hebrew.

And he came in and said, we know you're a teacher.

Why did he know her teacher said, because of these miracles,

and there was there was a purpose in those miracles,

and there was there was an attraction to that. And

we saw that again in devotions this morning and Acts three,

where this man was heal. And Jesus said, truly, truly, verly, rarely,

it's truly truly repetition for emphasis, no doubt. I say

into the except a man be born again, he cannot

see the Kingdom of God. Now this is term born again.

And I've titled the message born from above, born from

above because this can be interpreted in the Greek. It

could be born from above or be gotten from above.

But it's also in the Greek. It's purposefully ambiguous. So

it sort of sometimes when we use analogies, there's things

that it can be taken both ways, and maybe there's

truth in it both ways. But we see and I

will go back to say that this was probably their

discussion was probably and Hebrew, not Greek, so we don't

know if that was the connotation so much there, But

we see that that Nicodemus definitely took the more physical

aspect of it. He didn't go spiritual, he went he

went more the physical aspect of it. But he says

he must be born from above. Except and accept a

man be born from above, he cannot see the Kingdom

of God. In other words, you might have seen the miracles,

but you haven't seen anything yet. He has not seen

the Kingdom of God. And I believe that this is

this is an aspect of spiritual life. It's both how

we see, how we see physically is affected by how

we see spiritually. And that is a truth that I'd

like to remember as we go through here. And I

was thinking about that and our forgiveness discussion this morning,

and I believe it affects almost all aspects of spiritual life.

Is that the difference between the spiritual man, the saved man,

the one that's been born from above versus the one

that's not, is that the one that is not born

from above, the flesh is dictating the direction and stifles

the spirit. It's dictated by the flesh and it stifles

the spirit. Where when you're born learn from above, the

spirit is directing the flesh, and there's a freedom of spirit.

And Nicodemus is confused. He takes this literally rather than

the spiritual connotation. So what lens do we look at

life with? How do we see God? How do we

see our life in the context of the Kingdom of God?

This isn't just for This isn't just something that we

can practice enough to get right. We can be pretty

good pretender sometimes, but it's not something that we can

just practice and and and figure out. And Nicodemus, he's

confusing to I enter into my Mother's womb again when

I'm grown already. And Jesus said again, truly, truly, except

a man be born of water and a spirit, he

cannot enter into the kingdom. First we need to be

born of water physically and being born of the spirit.

And He's making a difference here. That which is born

of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born

of the spirit is spirit. And marvel not that I

send to you, that you must be born from above,

which is Christ. Now this is really interesting to me

as I think about it, that Christ and one verse,

one of my favorite verses is the incarnation is John

one fourteen. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt

among us, and we beheld his glow glory, the glory

as of the only begotten of the Father, full of

grace and truth. But Christ, Christ became flesh. And as

I was reading this and Christ's teaching here about the

flesh and the spirit, I wonder, I wonder if that

wasn't complicated to reconcile for Christ. We have difficulty sometime

wrapping our mind around the incarnation. Fully man, you, fully God,

and with God all things as possible. So I'm sure

Christ did reconcile it. But but he's he is making

that difference between the flesh and the spirit. Marvel not

that I say, And he must be born from above.

And then he uses the example of the wind, which

is and this word wind is is numa in the original.

Again I'm not sure what it was in Hebrew, but

numa is wind, and the same word as used for

wind and spirit. And Joel's brought us some good messages

on that aspect of life. And and last night you

probably if you are awake in the middle of the night,

got to hear some evidences of of this. The wind

bloweth where it lists, and thou hearest the sound there,

but can'st not tell whether it cometh or whether it goeth.

So is everyone that is born of the spirit. So

I think there's aspects the analogy of the wind. It

says that it's every one that is born of the spirit,

But it's also an analogy of the spirit that we

can see evidence sometimes, you know, there's sometimes you don't

hear the wind, but you look at the trees and

you can see there's some there you don't see the wind,

And sometimes it's a little stronger, and you like last night,

and we could hear it in the trees, and the

trees were moving more. There was more action, but we

just still don't see the wind. So as everyone that

is born of the spirit Tewod Corinthians five from sixteen

to eighteen like to read those verses Paul's explanation of this,

of this process of being born from above. Wherefore henceforth

know we know Man after the flesh. Yea, though we

have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know

we him no more. In other words, Christ isn't in

the flesh anymore. This is now it's a spiritual relationship. Therefore,

if any man be in Christ or born from above,

he has a new creature. Old things are passed away,

and behold, all things are become new verse eighteen. And

all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to

himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the

ministry of reconciliation. And this is reconciled first to God,

and then that also includes being reconciled to each other,

including forgiveness that we spoke about this morning in Sunday school.

And then in verses nine to thirteen he goes on

and he's at Nicodemus is wondering how these things can be,

and Jesus asked him, you're a teacher and don't know this,

and again, truly, truly, we speak what we know and

testify of what we have seen, and you receive not

our witness. And then he asks him, if I tell

you earthly things and you don't believe, how can you

believe if I tell you spiritual things. It's interesting Jesus

asked that question. Then he goes on and tell him

spiritual things. And I think maybe the thing we need

to remember is we have a lot more of the

story than Nicodemus did. And I don't think there's any

reason to be hard on Nicodemus. And he starts into

talking about the ascension that and no man hath ascended

up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven,

even the Son of Man, which is in heaven. And

so there's this aspect of the importance of being born

from above, because if we're going to ascend to heaven,

we have to be born from above or begotten of God.

That's why the second birth is important. We had our

physical birth on earth, but we are created to be

eternal beings. I believe we'll look a little more at

that later. But but Christ is saying that you can't

ascend to heaven unless you come down from heaven. Even

I came down from heaven, so I can send back

to heaven. And then he uses this analogy in verse fourteen,

and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,

even so must the son a man be lifted up,

prophesying which death he should die. And I think we're

just going to go back to numbers twenty one, and

it starts out, it's it's interesting this cycle that they're

in here. Israel vowed de vow in verse in verse two,

they're they're making their promises to God, commitment. In verse

three they have victory called the name of the place

horna horma fur. They're discouraged, and in verse five they're complaining.

And I think it's important to remember that just because

we make commitments and have victory doesn't make us born

from above. If we go through, if this is our cycle,

you know we can we can. Oh, we have victory

for a day or a week or so. And I

go back to discouragement and In fact, they said in

the and of verse five, for there is no bread,

neither is there any water, And our soul loathes this

light bread. Now, wouldn't you love to just try mana

at least once their soul was loathing this light bread.

But that was part of the curse. I'm going to

read from verse four to nine, just to refresh this

story with us. And they journeyed from Mount Horror by

the way of the Red Sea to compass the land

of Edom. And the soul of the people was much

discouraged because of the way. And as people spake against God.

Their commitment to God is two verses ago. And now

they're speaking against God and against Moses. Wherefore have you

brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness.

For there is no bread, neither is there any water,

And our soul loathes this light bread. And the Lord

sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people,

and much people of Israel died. Therefore, the people came

to Moses and said, we have sinned. Just stop there

for a little bit. The reason we need to be

born from above is because we've all been bitten by

the serpent. We know and feel and live with that

sin nature from Adam. But everyone here has complicated. We

have complicated our own lives by our own sin. We've

been bitten, and we have we have the curse of

death on us. And it is such a beautiful picture

of Christ looking forward to Christ reading on there. For

the people came to Moses and said, we have sinned

verse seven. For we have spoken against the Lord and

against thee, praying to the Lord that he would take

away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.

And the Lord said to Moses, make thee a fiery serpent,

and set it upon a pole. And it shall come

to pass that everyone that is bitten when he looketh

upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of

brass and put it on a pole. And it came

to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man,

when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. They

had to look at the serpent of brass to live.

And Jesus is referring back to that, and Jesus messages

as Moses message was that we don't just accept this

cycle of commitment, victory, discouragement, and complaining we don't just

accept that same cycle, but that we look to the cross.

We look to Christ to break the cycle. And that

is was Christ's purpose for dying on the cross. And

if the sentence finishes in verse fifteen, that whosoever believeth

in him should not perish, but have eternal life. That's

repeated in John sixteen, that very familiar verse. And Jesus

said in John twelve thirty two, and if I be

lifted up from the earth, we'll draw all men unto me. Again,

that's pointing to Christ the try and we've all been

bitten by the snake of sin, and spiritually it is

fatal unless we look to Christ on the tree, and

so we shall not perish, either physically or spiritually, if

we look to him. It's not a promise of good life,

but eternal life. I'm going to reread Psalms sixteen to

twenty one. Then I'd just like to go through a

few concepts in these last verses. For God to love

the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that

whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God sent not his son into the world to

condemn the world, but that the world through him might

be saved. He that believed on him is not condemned.

But he that believeth not is condemned already, because he

hath not believed in the name of the only begotten

Son of God. And this is the condemnation. That light

has come into the world. And men love darkness rather

than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that

doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light

lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth

truth cometh to the light and his deed, that his

deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

The first concept that we see through here in several

times in versus his condemnation, we already looked at verse

fourteen being bitten by the snake, our endemic nature, and

our own sin. Verse fifteen in sixteen speaks of shall

not perish, we are destined to perish. That's condemnation, and

then it uses the word condemnation different times, and verse

seventeen speaks of a conviction of the conscience. God sent

not into the world to condemn the world. I don't

come to condemn that's not what Jesus came for. But

you know, Nicodemus came to Jesus for a reason. And

I have found this sometimes when you know, there's things

that we as Christian people don't do, and it does

speak to people. Now there's sometimes people in business where

there'll be people drinking and I'm not drinking. And actually

I've learned to avoid those situations more as time went on.

But they asked me, you know, why why are you

drinking sprite? And I said, well, I don't drink alcohol.

And you know it, Oh, it invariably goes to they

make some excuse why they do drink, and then it

goes on. Do they start talking about what they go

to church or they don't go to church and the

reasons they don't go to church because the especially in

the Catholics, because of all the all the press about

the debauchery and the priesthood and that type of thing.

But that's their conscience. But that's important. It's important that

we have that conscience and we can look at them.

But I know that in my own life we can

get used to things. We can get used to things

and just decide all that's just the way I am,

are we willing to let the truth speak? And Verse

eighteen is condemnation through unbelief. He that believeth not is

condemned already. Verse nineteen is the condemnation of darkness, the

condemnation of darkness. Men love darkness rather than light because

their deeds are evil. And this is interesting. I don't

I don't believe that Jesus was you know, Nicodemus came

to Jesus at night because of darkness. Right, most likely

he was not coming to be known of the of

the others, the rest of the sanhedron that he was coming,

but sometimes in darkness, And I think this is one

of those occasions. Sometimes in the darkness of light of night,

the light is shining bright. And I believe that this

is one of those occasions that Nicodemus at night went

and found a light. And I believe it's God's desire

that we are a great light and those to those

around us. The next point is God's love. The first

one is condemnation. The second one is God's love. It

says in verse sixteen, for God so loved the world,

maybe the first words of scripture we've ever memorized. It

maybe has become so normal to us that we don't

think about the depth of it. That God's soul loved

the world. It's such an important aspect of this chapter,

but only state at one time, I think yeah. In

verse nineteen, it says men love darkness, so the word

is used again. But God so loved the world. It's

a typlified in Abraham offering his son Isaac in Romans

five to eight, says, but God commendeth his love towards us,

and that while we were yes sinners, Christ died for us.

God doesn't wait for our forgiveness to love us. Well,

we are yet loving darkness, as in verse nineteen, where

men love darkness rather than light, Well, we are yet

loving darkness. God loved us and sent the light to

bring us from darkness. Another aspect of this is faith

or believing, and he uses the term believeth in here

multiple times verse fifteen whosoever believeth in him sixteen, whosoever

believeth in him eighteen believeth versus believeth not. And that

e suffix means continual, present, tense, And that's the part

of where the salvation, the delivery that Christ is talking

about and being born from above isn't to continue the cycle.

It's to continue in Christ, to continue in Him. He

that believeth continual, present tense. The human tendency is to

believe in ourselves and to doubt others and especially God.

Modern teaching on self care and thinking about ourselves is

not making the world a better place. We should believe

in God, continue to believe in God, in Christ, and

doubt ourselves. I believe that godly disciplines and taking care

of ourselves is important, but we will be more whole

if we focus on God and others first. And then

the last point here is light. Light already talked about

him coming at night and in teaching at light, and

I believe it just seems like there's a bit of

an irony in this, but it says that light in

verse nineteen, the condemnation from the light because it shows things.

And there was this untidy housekeeper. I read a quote

one time that she said her house wouldn't be so

dirty if the sun went shine so bright. And I

think it seems a little obvious and ridiculous, but I

think we can be a little like that sometimes that yeah,

we're okay if we just wouldn't be around so much light.

Light is coming to the world, and men love darkness

rather than light because they're are evil. Light is avoided

in verse twenty, Light condemns in verse nineteen, is avoided

in verse twenty. But he that doeth truth in verse

twenty one cometh to the light. You know, sometimes I've

seen this in different seminars, teachers, instructors. They say, oh,

they want feedback, they want surveys, And I have come

to not trust the motives and a lot of those things,

because I think what maybe what we want is a

pat on the back, because I have observed that when

you're frankly honest in some of those surveys, they're not

so eager to receive it. And maybe they're not. They

don't like the light as much as they claim they do.

Are we that way? We say we want on a

speedback and then get offended when we get it. Do

we really welcome the light? Romans thirteen, verse twelve. Since

the night is far spent in the day as at hand,

let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and

let us put on the armor of light. And I

think the light is important. It's the truth of God's word,

it's walking honestly, it's what it goes on to say

in Romans. It's also being open with those around us,

not being not loving the darkness. And I guess maybe

that's the simple question that we should ask ourselves this morning.

So I think about my life, do I love darkness

or do I love light? I'd just like to say

verse sixteen together in closing altogether, for God so loved

the world that he gave that whosoever believeth in him

should not perish, but have everlasting light. Let's have a song.