What I thought we'd do this afternoon
is look at three different personal conversations that our Lord had
with three different people. One, Nicodemus in John 3. One, the Samaritan woman in John
4. And then the rich young ruler
in Luke 18. It's very interesting to go through
the New Testament, of course, and look at the public discourses
of our Lord. And he had so much to say to
huge crowds, like the Sermon on the Mount, things like that.
And then you look at some discourses to smaller groups, but still
more than one person at a time, like when he would, the woes
to the Pharisees, you could kind of see a small group of Pharisees
around him there. But what to me is even more interesting
than all of those is what he said to individual people that
he came across. And three of the most famous
of those we'll look at quickly today. There were three These
three were different kinds of people. Nicodemus was a Jewish
ruler and therefore a Pharisee, so he was at the top of the spectrum. He was a ruler of the Pharisees,
so he knew a lot. He was well-educated. And then
there is the Samaritan woman, kind of the other extreme of
the spectrum. She was Samaritan, which was
discriminated against by the Jews. And then she was a woman
and they were not well treated back then, as you know. So that's
another interesting scene. And then we have the rich young
ruler that is a third one we'll look at. So these, instead of
the public discourses, these are individual conversations
with people that really show the heart of our Lord and the
gospel. And what he was saying to them
was the real truth of the gospel. In all of these three conversations,
we're going to see that the Lord did not give them something to
do to be saved, even though one of them asked him, what can I
do to be saved? He did not give any of them something
to do, something to work their way to heaven. But he told them
the gospel. And it was all centered on him,
himself, and what he was going to do for them. Very interesting. So very different than many churches,
so-called churches, that are proclaiming the, quote, gospel
these days, because it's always something to do. The overview
is that there were two outward seekers, Nicodemus and the rich
young ruler, and there's one chance meeting, nothing was by
chance, but we'll call it that, chance meeting with the Samaritan
woman. So two of these people were seeking him out, one wasn't. Nicodemus was impressed by the
miracles. He believed that somehow God
was with Jesus. And the Lord gave him nothing
to do but to believe. And it's so funny because John
3, that passage, is the passage so many Armenians take to tell
people that they have to do something, they have to be born again. If
you can imagine telling somebody that you need to be born, you
go and be born again. Jesus did say you must be born
again, but he didn't mean it as something to do. Then the
Samaritan woman, the Lord shocked the woman by talking to her at
all and the disciples when they came back and rejoined with the
Lord, they were shocked that he was talking to this woman.
They talked about living water, her sin and religion. She believed
he was, just to look at the progression of what she believed. At first
she believed he was just a Jewish man. Then she believed he was
a prophet. Then she finally believed he
was the Messiah. She did believe. The rich young
ruler, he asked what he needed to do to inherit eternal life.
And we'll look at that last. Okay, so let's turn to John 3,
verses 1 to 21. I'm not gonna take the time to
read the verses because I think you know them real well. I will
remind you of John 19.39, where we do see Nicodemus again, and
it gives us a little idea that maybe he was saved in the end. 19.39 says, and there came also
Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night and brought
mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pound weight. That
was a lot of money. to spend on somebody's burial. And so we would hope in the end
that he was a Christian. So let's just go down the line
of see what Nicodemus and the Lord talked about. Okay, Nicodemus
came to the Lord. He was a seeker. What was he
seeking? Verses one and two, 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. So, first
of all, there's a lot that a lot of people make by the fact that
he came by night. Just by the mere fact that John
tells us that, he probably was trying to come after dark He
was a ruler of the Pharisees. He just didn't want it to get
around, you know, that I'm talking to this man. But he was a miracle
observer. He was coming to him because
he was impressed by the miracles. He knew God was with him somehow,
and that's what caught his attention. The Lord answers him. You know, it's so amazing to
look at how our Lord talks to people. He didn't take that bait at all. He wasn't going to go there and
talk about the miracles and talk about that kind of thing. He
right off says, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. He just got
right to it. And this was not a command. This is not in the command mode
of the Greek. It is just a statement of fact.
He says to Nicodemus, listen, okay, you're interested in my
miracles. You're evidently interested in who God is. Let me tell you
right away, you're not gonna understand any of this unless
you be born again, unless you become a new creature. The spiritual birth is required. He did not give him something
to do. Notice the Greek word is di. It means it is necessary. It's
not a command. It just says it is necessary
to be born again. Notice that also, it's interesting
when you read through the King James, you can tell the difference
between the singular you and the plural you. You know how
to do that. Thou, thee and thou are singular, ye, and your are
plural. So you can see that this statement
is a broad statement. Verily I say unto you, except
a man be born again, he cannot... I'm sorry, not that one, but
the one down here in verse... Let's see. I don't know where it is you go
to. I'll get to it later. Hold that thought. So he's talking
about the sovereignty of God in verses eight, in verse eight. The wind blows where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit. Now, you realize in verse eight,
it's just the word pneuma, and the translators translate the
first use of it as wind, which I think is right, But it's all
context. And the second use is spirit.
But it's just the one word, pneuma. And he's saying here, so the
first word to Nicodemus is, okay, let's just get to the facts here. And the first is, you can't understand
any of the spiritual things I'm about to tell you unless you're
born again. Second thing is, that it's all by the sovereignty
of God. It's just like the wind blowing where it wants to, that
God is going to save who he wants to. So Nicodemus needs to understand
that next. Then the third thing, and through
the rest of the passage, you realize so many people don't
understand that this discussion with Nicodemus goes all the way
through verse 21, through the famous passage of God so loved
the world. This is all an individual discussion
with Nicodemus, and it's the entire gospel in this one setting. So the next thing that the Lord
leads him to is a discussion about who he, Jesus, is himself,
which is the whole gospel. And so he's going to bring it
around to him himself. It's all about him. It's not
about commandments. It's not about things to do.
It's about him, the son of man, being from heaven, et cetera.
So look in verse 13. And no man hath ascended up to
heaven, that he that came down from heaven, even the son of
man, which is in him. So, many times we just need to
put ourselves back in the context of the times. Imagine that we
didn't have this, and that it was happening right before our
eyes in this society, this Jewish society, and then imagine the
absolute degree of this claim that he's
making. First of all, he says to him
that he, Jesus, has descended from heaven. Quite a claim. A claim to deity, which he's
gonna get even stronger with as we go forward. Now, in verses
14 through 17, he's going to tell us what action is required
for salvation. And it's not an action that we
do, it's an action that God does. So verses 14 through 17 even
get more amazing in the context of the Jewish society back there.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the son of man be lifted up. There is the crucifixion. There
is the gospel right here in this discourse to Nicodemus. That
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal
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. So here the amazing claim is
that Jesus was not only down from heaven, but he was the Son
of Man, later he's going to be now the Son of God, and that
he refers back to Numbers 21 verses four through nine, the
serpent in the wilderness. So our Lord identifies himself
with the serpent in the wilderness. Now Nicodemus was trained in
the letters. He knew the Old Testament backwards
and forwards, didn't he? He would have known this to the
letter, what happened to the children of Israel. Let me remind
you what happened. In Numbers 21, The children of
Israel, in their wilderness wanderings, were getting a little fed up
with things. They were fed up with the manna,
no pun intended, and they were just tired of wandering around,
and they were disgruntled. And they started complaining
that they didn't have real food, but just this manna. So they
really, really did it to themselves. and God punished them by sending
fiery serpents or snakes into their midst and they were biting
them and they were dying. And then he told Moses, because
the people started repenting and crying out, told Moses to
take this brass serpent and set it up on a pole and whoever looked
to that brass serpent would be healed and would live. And that
was the symbol for us of the crucifixion. Our Lord was not a serpent, but
he took upon him the sins of the world and became sin in that
way. So he was like that. And that was a type of the crucifixion. So now he's telling Nicodemus
straight up As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the Son of Man, he just said he was the Son of
Man, he's saying I am going to be like that serpent on the rod
in the Old Testament. And then he says, therefore you
need to believe in me. And of course we know, as Christians
studying the Bible, that belief is a gift of God too. So that's
not something to, it is something to do, but it's not something
to work your way into heaven for. Then verses 18 through 21. So this is quite a claim. Quite
a claim that he's made to Nicodemus, this man who came to seek him
out. In verses 18 to 21, he talks about light versus darkness.
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. Now he's the Son of God, as well
as the Son of man. 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 reprieved. But he that doeth truth cometh
to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are
wrought in God. So there is the gospel to Nicodemus
on a personal conversation between our Lord and Nicodemus. The whole
gospel's there. The fact that you have to be
born again to ever see spiritual things. The fact that We are
sinners. You realize that sin got into
this conversation. It's not real apparent. But sin
got into the conversation kind of through saying you've got
to be born again, but second of all, through describing the
serpent in the wilderness. That was a great reference to
the fact that the children of Israel sin, and we're sinners
also. So the sin, the atonement, the
son of man, the son of God, and belief. The whole gospel right
there. Now let's look at the Samaritan
woman in John 4. And once again, we won't read the whole passage,
but we'll kind of go down through it as we talk. The Samaritan
woman was more of a chance meeting. You understand what I'm saying
there. but it was a providential journey of the Son of God. In verse four, let's just read
down to verse four. When therefore the Lord knew
how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more
disciples than John, though Jesus himself baptized not, but his
disciples, he left Judea and departed again into Galilee.
and he must, needs, go through Samaria. That is the same Greek
word, di, that we saw with Nicodemus. It is necessary for you to be
born again. This is, di here means it was
necessary for him to go through Samaria. So it had to be. Now, why did it have to be? Well,
in one sense, he had to go through there to get where he was going,
but that's not really what it means here, is it? It means it
was necessary that he go through there to meet this woman. And
so it was a providential meeting. It was necessary. It was necessary
for her. He came to this place, Sychar,
to Jacob's well. So it's got all this history
with the Jews. And it was the place of Jacob's
well. It was about noon. The sixth
hour would have been about straight up noon. So it was hot. He'd
been walking and he was thirsty. And so They meet up. Verse five. He cometh to a city
of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground
that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus,
therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the
well, and it was about the sixth hour. Okay, so you've gotta put
yourself into this situation also. This time, Jesus is in
kind of a foreign country, because Samaria was kind of a foreign
country for Jews. They didn't have any time for
Samaritans because of the history. Samaritans were kind of an outcast
people. And a Jewish man was just not to talk to a Jewish
woman. He just was not to be. So here he is sitting on the
well and verse seven, there cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith unto her, give me
to drink. So he breaks the ice by by talking
to this woman and saying, please give me a drink of water. In verse eight, let's see. Yeah, verse eight says, for his disciples were gone away
into the city to buy meat, so they were alone here. Thus then
saith the woman of Samaria unto him, how is it that thou being
a Jew, Ask this drink of me, which am a woman of Samaritan. For the Jews have no dealings
with the Samaritans." This Greek word for no dealings with, very
interesting word. It means to associate on friendly
terms or to have dishes in common. So she's saying, look, you know
the rules. We don't eat together. We don't
have anything in common. I'm a woman. I'm a Samaritan.
What in the world? are you talking to me for? Jesus
steers the conversation once again like he did with Nicodemus
to spiritual things. He's going to tell her that he
can give her living water. So let's read verses 10 through
15. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift
of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou
wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living
water. The woman said unto him, Sir,
thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From whence
then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father
Jacob? She's gonna start to name drop
here. Which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and
his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto
her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. But
whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never
thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well
of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman saith unto him,
Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither
to draw. And you have to wonder whether
she really understands yet or not. I mean, it has nothing with
coming hither to draw. He's talking about spiritual
water, but she's got to She's starting to understand because
the Lord's opening her eyes to things. It's all about him again. It's not about commandments.
It's not about a thing to do. It's about him and what he was
there for. And she says to him, notice,
are you greater than our father Jacob? Well, yes. Yes, he is. And he's preaching grace and
sovereignty again. And she wants this. She wants
to go further with this. Well, okay. But first, she's
got to understand something. And you know what that is? That's
her sin. So that's where he goes next. And this is an amazing
passage. Verses 16 through 19. So he seems
to just branch off into this new conversation. Jesus said
unto her, Go call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered
and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, thou hast
said well, I have no husband, for thou hast had five husbands,
and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband. In that saidst
thou truly. The woman said unto him, sir,
I perceive that thou art a prophet. So he hits her personally with
her sin. Obviously he knows everything.
He knows her sin. And he knows the quickest way
to show her that he knows her sin. And that is to inquire about
her husbands and her present life. Notice, just a little side
comment, notice that just because you live with someone doesn't
make them your husband. Because he says, you know, you've had
five husbands and the one you're living with now is not your husband.
So that's an interesting portion. And so she sees her sin, and
now she's up to saying, oh, you've got to be a prophet. You've got
to be at least a prophet. Now, he was a Jewish man to start
with, and now he's a prophet because he knows her sin. So
what does she do? This is such an interesting conversation.
She wants to get off that subject real quick, doesn't she? So in
verses 20 to 24, she turns it to religion. And how many times
have you talked to somebody, and when things are on a personal
level, they just want to jump out of there, and let's start
talking about religion. Where do you go to church? Well,
I go here. Where do you go? And what building
do you think we should worship in? That's what she's going to
do right now. So verses 20 to 24. Our fathers worshiped in this
mountain. And ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where
men ought to worship. So let's have a discussion about
where you should worship. Jesus saith unto her, woman,
believe me, the hour comes when ye shall neither in this mountain
nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. He says, it doesn't
matter where you worship. Ye worship, now there's that
ye, plural. Ye worship ye know not what. He's saying all of you Samaritans,
You're worshiping a God you don't even know. So now he's getting
back to really personal again. We know what we worship for salvation
is of the Jews. Now, there is a very particular
statement, very exclusive statement. It's like when we tell someone
that you can only be saved through Jesus Christ. It's exclusivity
in the Bible. And he says to her, You guys
are worshiping. You think you're worshiping.
You don't even know who you're worshiping. It reminds me of Paul talking
to the people on Mars Hill, and he says, you know, you guys got
this unknown God out there. You don't know who you're worshiping.
Let me tell you about him. So he's going to do the same
thing with her. He's going to tell her about the true God. Jesus' answer to her is it doesn't
matter where. Salvation is of the Jews. Truth
is exclusive. Spirit and truth. So here is
the famous passage where he says, God is a spirit and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. He was
saying that to the woman. Then in verses 25 to 26, it comes
to a conclusion. The woman said unto him, I know
that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ, When he has come,
he'll tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that
speak unto thee am he. So there it is. I am the Messiah
you've heard about. I am the Christ. And she believed it. Because she went back telling
everybody. And once again, it's all about
him, isn't it? It's all about him and who he
is. It's not about anything else.
Verses 40 through 42, well, you know what happened. His disciples
come up. They were astonished he was talking to this woman.
The woman left her water pot, went into the city, and she said
to the man in verse 29, come see a man which told me all things
that ever I did. And she means, ever I did wrong.
Is this not the Christ? Now actually, this sentence in
the Greek is kind of expecting a negative answer. Maybe she's
still got some doubts here. Maybe she's wanting to hear what
the other people have to say about it. But in the end, it
does appear that she believed. Then they went out of the city
and came unto him. Okay, and then down in 40 to 42, So when the Samaritans were come
unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them, and
he abode there two days. And many more believed, which
indicates that she also believed, because many more believed, because
of his own word, and said unto the woman, Now we believe, not
because of thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves, and
know that this is indeed the Christ the savior of the world. So, that is quite a passage,
and quite a, it's very similar in many ways to what happened
to Nicodemus, but it's also different in some ways. And yet you see
the core of the gospel. You see the fact that he's telling
him and her who he is, how a person must become spiritual to understand
and think through the new birth, how sin has to have an atonement,
the serpent, in the wilderness and how you need to believe,
just believe these facts that the Son of God, Son of Man is
who He says He is. Okay, finally, the rich young
ruler. Let's turn to Luke 18. It's in Luke 18, 18 through 30,
and it's in Matthew 19, a parallel passage, verses 16 through 90. Luke says he was a ruler. Matthew says he was young. And
both of them say he was rich. One says he was very rich. The
other said he had great possessions. So this is where you get rich,
young, ruler. All right, he comes up with a
definite question. He's another seeker. The Samaritan
woman wasn't a seeker, but the Lord found her. And this guy
is a seeker. What does he want? Verses 18 of chapter 18. And a certain
ruler asked him, saying, good master, what shall I do to inherit
eternal life? He's very obviously seeking eternal
life. He doesn't mention the miracles
like Nicodemus did. He's seeking eternal life for
himself, and he calls Jesus good master. Well, Jesus keys on that
word good, and he's gonna take this young ruler for a conversation. Notice in Luke 18, he says, good
master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And in Matthew
19, he says, good master, what good things shall I do that I
may have eternal life? He's definitely wanting to know
something to do to get eternal life. And outwardly, the Lord's
gonna give him something to do, isn't he? But is that really
what it's all about? No, we'll find that out. So he
keys on the word good, and he says, Jesus saith unto him, why
callest thou me good? None is good except one, that
is God. Now obviously he is God, but
the rich man really doesn't know that yet. He called him good,
so Jesus is making him think about it. Thou knowest the commandments. So the first thing off the bat,
the Lord says to him, really gets him thinking, who am I that
you're talking to? You need to think about who I
am. Why'd you call me good? And he's asked other people in
the scriptures, who am I? All right, what does the Lord
give him to do? Well, he starts into the commandments.
Murder, adultery, stealing, false witness, and honoring father
and mother. And then Matthew gives one other
commandment, which is loving your neighbor as yourself, which
is gonna be key. Thou knowest the commandments,
do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear
false witness, honor thy father and mother. And he said, all
these have I kept for my youth up. Well, that was easy. He's
kept all the commandments all the way from his youth up. What
a claim. And it reminds me of some of
the claims these days of people. I was talking to Craig last week
about the Nazarene church. And they believe that you can
reach sinless perfection and that you need to reach sinless
perfection. And it's real easy the way they define sin. And
if you, you know, if you don't actually kill someone, then you've
obeyed that commandment. What did the Lord say when he,
on the Sermon on the Mount, he said, no, no, it's not about
just not killing somebody, it's about not thinking that you want
them dead in your heart. So none of us have kept the commandments
not a single day, not probably a single hour. So this young
man doesn't realize that. He needs to come to some realization.
Well, the Lord's gonna give him that realization. So what does
he do? He says, okay, he says, Not a
problem, Lord, good master. I've done all those things from
my youth up. That's just not a problem with
you. Okay, listen, he's gonna get a test here. Now, when Jesus heard these things,
he said unto him, yet lackest thou one thing. There's only
one thing keeping you back, rich young ruler. Sell all that thou
hast and distribute unto the poor and thou shall have treasure
in heaven and come follow me. Well, that's kind of hitting
close to home. He was a rich young ruler, and
Jesus just was telling him, look, okay, let me tell you about this
one commandment, love your neighbor as yourself. You know what that
really means? Well, let's see if you really
are in your heart doing that. Sell everything you got, give
to the poor, show us all that you love your neighbor as yourself,
and then come follow me. Well, no. And when he heard this,
he was very sorrowful, for he was very rich. And when Jesus
saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, how hardly shall they
that have riches enter into the kingdom of God, for it's easier
for a camel to go through a needle's eye than for a rich man to enter
into the kingdom of God. So what does all this mean? Does it mean that he lost out
on the kingdom of God just because he didn't sell everything and
do that thing that Jesus gave him to do? No, because there's
nothing to do to get salvation. The thing was he needed to realize
that he couldn't do anything to be saved, that he was a sinner
like all of us and that he was incapable of keeping the commandments. And then the Lord would change
That's part of the process. Sorry, I got that out of order.
That would prove that the Lord had changed his heart, showed
him his sin, and that he was saved. So, that's what this passage
is about. So many people get this one wrong.
The test was to show him his heart. The test was to show him
his sin. Well, then how can a man be saved? If we left it like that, it's
just impossible. Well, in verse 26, and they that
heard it said, who then can be saved? Because, you know, they
thought the world of rich people back then. They just thought
that they got those riches because God gave them to them and that
they were the top of society. So if those guys can't get saved,
Lord, who can be saved? And he said, The things which
are impossible with men are possible with God. So that's where we
find out that salvation comes solely from God and that it comes
through these steps that he has designed in these conversations
of showing us our sins, showing us atonement, et cetera. So the
common themes we have seen in these three personal conversations
are that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of Man, the Son of God,
the Christ, God Himself. You know, it's amazing to me
how some people try to say that Jesus never claimed to be God.
That's just not true. Here it is. That man has sin,
as shown by the law in some conversations, by personal sin in others, like
with the woman, or by the example from the Old Testament with Nicodemus
of the serpent. So we have sin of the atonement,
the serpent paid the price for our sins. What man, that man
must be born again to see this in his own life or drink living
water, same thing, born again, drink living water, that there
is no work by man to get salvation, but the work is by God, the serpent
in the wilderness. and we see the sovereignty of
God.