John's Gospel chapter three in
your Bibles, and I was going to speak to some of the young
people here, so if that one wants to come back, he's welcome. Asher! Come on, Asher, come in
here for a moment. I want you to sit beside your
mum and read her Bible with her. We're gonna speak about a man
called Nicodemus for a moment or two. And if you've got your
Bible there, then put your finger on verse one and with the children,
read down through the words, because we're going to read the
first 15 verses of this lovely story of a man called Nicodemus. John chapter three and verse
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, 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 wind bloweth 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. Nicodemus answered and said unto
him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto
him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and
testify that we have seen, and ye receive not our witness. If
I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall
ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things? 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 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 eternal
life. Now, boys and girls, this man
called Nicodemus that we have read about in the Bible today
was a very religious man. He was very religious. You know,
Nicodemus never missed an opportunity to be at church. He was there
at every service possible. And he read his Bible all the
time. And he did good works. The number
of good works that Nicodemus did would make a great big pile. And he made sure that everybody
knew about his good works. He was a very religious man. And he tried his best at everything
that he did so that God would be pleased with him. But Nicodemus was also very puzzled. He knew that this man Jesus was
someone special, but he couldn't understand what it was that was
so different about him. And so Nicodemus decided that
he would come and he would talk to Jesus. and he would come to
Jesus at night, perhaps because he didn't want other people to
know that he was talking to Jesus, perhaps because he thought it
would be quiet then and he would have an opportunity to speak
to him and to hear what he had to say. But for whatever reason,
Nicodemus did the right thing. He came to Jesus. And that's
something that we should remember, that he came to Jesus. And when he came to Jesus, he
said to Jesus, we know some things about you. But Jesus said to Nicodemus,
Nicodemus, What do you really know? What do you really know
about eternal life? What do you really know about
God's way of salvation? Nicodemus, you're trying to be
good. You come to church, you're at all the meetings, you do good
work, you read your Bible, you're trying to be good. But what do
you really know? about everlasting life. And the very first thing that
Jesus said to this man, Nicodemus, was this, I say unto thee, verily,
verily, truly, truly, this is true, Nicodemus, I say unto thee,
except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus, if you want to please
God, it's not about all your good works. It's not about all
your efforts. It's about believing in me. It's about having a spirit of
grace. brought into your life. It is about having that spiritual
new life inside your heart. Jesus went on to speak about
something which we all know a little bit about. He went on to speak
about the wind. Now you know that I'm living
in Shoto at the moment, and Shoto is a place where they get a lot
of wind, and we've got some friends up in Shoto, and would you believe
they lost their garden last week? Their garden was destroyed because
of the wind. The wind can be very powerful,
and the wind can be very gentle. The wind can cool you down on
a very hot day and it can blow you over on a very windy day. And you see there's something
about the wind that speaks to us about God and the way in which
he deals with people. And just because we're enjoying
a gentle breeze doesn't mean to say that there might not be
a hurricane just around the corner. The Spirit of God is like the
wind, says Jesus. You don't know where it's going
to come from and you don't know where it's going to go. but it's
very powerful and it does what it wants. No one can control
the wind. And these people that lost all
their flowers and their vegetables and their herbs in their gardens,
they couldn't control the wind. But the Spirit of God is necessary
if we are ever going to have new life. The Bible tells us
here, that this man called Nicodemus, he was told about the Spirit
of God coming into his life, opening his heart and showing
him the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ. The wind bloweth
where it listeth, wherever it wants. You can hear the sound
thereof, but you don't know where it's come from or where it's
going. And so is everyone that is born
of the Spirit. Except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit, except a person be born again by the grace of
God through the Spirit of God, he cannot enter into the kingdom
of God. Nicodemus tells us something.
Nicodemus tells us that it's a good thing to go to the Lord
Jesus when you don't understand something. If you read some things
in the Bible, or if you hear your mums or dads saying some
things, or if you hear some things at church from the preacher that
you don't understand, Ask the Lord Jesus to help you understand
what these things mean. That's exactly what Nicodemus
did. He went to Jesus to help him
understand what these things mean. He listened to Jesus as
Jesus explained these things to him. And so we listen for
the Lord Jesus Christ to teach us, perhaps not with an audible
voice that we can hear, and yet he teaches us in our hearts and
in our minds to trust and to believe in him. And the next
thing that Nicodemus did was he took these things away and
he thought about them. And that's a good thing for us
to do as well. In John chapter 19 and verse
39, we're told that the Lord Jesus Christ had been crucified. He had been taken to the cross
and he had been put to death. And we read these words. And
there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by
night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred
pound weight. Then took they the body of Jesus,
and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as is the manner
of the Jews, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. Now in the
place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the
garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid. There
laid thee Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day,
for the sepulchre was nigh at hand. Do you know that the last
person to touch the Lord Jesus Christ before he was buried was
this man, Nicodemus? Do you know why that's significant
that I mention that? Because as a Jew, he wasn't supposed
to touch a dead body. especially at this time of the
Sabbath and the preparation for the Sabbath and the holy time
and the feasts that were happening at this time. That tells me something. It tells me that Nicodemus had
moved beyond his fear of ritual and he had come to understand
something of the blessedness of the Lord Jesus Christ. They
laid him in the tomb, Nicodemus and his friend Joseph. They laid
him in the tomb and the very next thing that we read, the
Lord Jesus Christ was come back to life. So here we have the
testimony of a man called Nicodemus who came to Jesus and to found
out what it was to discover spiritual new life in his heart and to
understand the grace of God. I hope that that's something
that we will learn too, the grace of God by coming to the Lord
Jesus Christ, listening to what he has to say and thinking upon
it and trusting him in our hearts. Amen.