Born of the Spirit "I Am Who I Am" [12 of 12] Tim Mackie (The Bible Project) 7/6/2014

um good to have you guys here i invite you to uh grab your bible and uh turn to uh the fourth fourth book in the new testament uh the gospel of john the gospel of john chapter three uh now there was a pharisee a man named nicodemus and he was a member of the jewish ruling council he came to jesus at night and he said rabbi we know that you are a teacher who has come from god for no one could perform the signs you are doing if god were not with him jesus answered very truly i tell you no one can see the kingdom of god unless they are what born again all right so let's let's pause before we read on any more this uh this whole story and conversation and passage is about uh the reality of being born again by the spirit we're concluding the spirit series with john chapter 3 being born again by the spirit and being born again is the phrase that you've heard before haven't you you've heard of this phrase and actually it's interesting it's becoming less i think less well-known or at least less stereotyped a phrase um and what's come to replace it in american popular culture is uh the phrase evangelical right and so you guys with me here so if you've heard the phrase born again born again uh in american culture over the last 50 years or so has actually come to have a really specific meaning in american culture um and so you can do actually someone encouraged me to do this and i did i went to the oregonian online you know you could just search the whole history of oregonian now everything that's it's really amazing just go to their website and so i search for all the stories that have mentioned a born again christian and i also went to willamette week and that was also really interesting too and so here's here's um here's a born-again christian as far as you know our our city is concerned even what what types of people are referred to and these are these are almost always i found three different types of stories it's a story about someone who was doing like sex drugs rock and roll or whatever they're kind of like they're well known as like a musician or whatever an artist or somewhere in the city you know uh a prominent business person or whatever and their life crashes and caves in and hits bottom and then they got religion they got jesus in some form some sort of radical they had emotional conversion experience and now they're still the prominent in the city or whatever musician artist or whatever but now they're just like you know crazy for jesus and everyone's weirded out by them so there's a whole bunch of stories about that in the oregonian and the term used to refer to these type of people is is born again christians the other type of story is someone uh who maybe whatever their their background but but the point is is that that at some point they've become a christian and then they've become super vocal in the local you know or or statewide political scene right and so they they are translating and so there's a whole package that comes along with that with especially like back in the 80s of the religious right and the moral majority and were born again and and it's connected with politics it was really fascinating so there you go it's either like you're emotionally broken person who needs a crutch and you got religion and then you adopted this kind of narrow traditional moral black and white framework for your life and that's bor though you must be a born-again christian or you know you had some kind of similar experience and then you become very vocal in the political sphere in our city and so that's then there you go that's according to the oregonian willamette week just go search the phrase born against and that's what you'll find here's what's interesting this happened to me not long ago about three months ago i was having coffee uh as i do regularly regularly as we all do regularly it's portland freaking six and so i was at albino press and no joke i was sitting by two uh young women and they were talking about a friend and they were talking about how this friend you know stopped sleeping with her boyfriend and she's like you know kind of withdrawn a little bit doesn't come to the weekend parties or whatever anymore and then then one of them said she she's become a christian one of those born again christians or something like that and it was this totally derogatory term and what what this term referred to in that conversation was exactly what willamette weakened oregonian referred to as somebody who got religion and what they what they begin to adopt then is some sort of like very narrow traditional moral framework they got religion they got jesus they became a puritan or something like that right they became it was a call to religion traditional religious morality right that's what's happening in that conversation that's how our culture perceives this term born again if you use it now here's what's interesting to me about this this story about about being born again by the spirit where does the phrase born again at least in the history of christianity occur for the very first time so you just you just read it who coined the phrase who jesus coined the phrase and and this is what i want to draw attention to right first off is who is he saying needs to be born again and really think about this so so our culture has a stereotype that it's somebody who's needs an emotional crutch they got religion it's somebody who has adopted a very narrow traditional moral religious framework or something like that and the person the first person in history who is ever called by jesus to become born again breaks all of those stereotypes did you notice that so we read that so can so who's this guy who's nicodemus actually before we're even given his name what are we told about him he's a pharisee which you know there's a whole bunch of connotations of that within christianity too a lot of which i i don't think are quite correct but the whole point to say the very least is he's a very religious man he's in terms of like devout religious practice he has all of us be already like we don't even need to have that conversation to compare he's a pharisee in terms of like devout uh devotion to the scriptures and to daily prayer prayer multiple times per day at set hours over the course of decades and years we know that he's uh he's old we know that he's uh what is he he's a member of what he's a member of the elite do you see that there he's a member of the jewish ruling ruling council he's he's a man of privilege he has privileged status in their whole culture he's a bible teacher right he does what i do for a living except he had been doing it for way way way longer like decades so he's he's he's an educated wealthy as we learn at the end of the gospel he helped fund uh jesus's tomb and and and the spices and stuff that jesus's body was involved in so he's a wealthy learned elderly religious studies professor and he's he is as a man of status in the community every time the only other times he appears in the gospel like people pay attention when he speaks and so on and this is the first person in history who jesus calls to be born again so what whatever it means to be born again it is not apparently a call to become more religious it's not a call to adopt a kind of narrow moralistic framework for your life because you could i mean you couldn't invent a person who's more traditional and moral and religious than this man you guys with me here so whatever the phrase born again means it is not what our culture means and so we need it's like back to the sources back to what on earth did jesus mean now this is already that this happens multiple times in this conversation do you notice that jesus totally just dodges what nicodemus is saying what does nicodemus come to jesus to do is nicodemus a broken person looking for some kind of spiritual emotional crutch in his life no no he's a very stable man right and things are going well for this guy and and notice look at what he comes to jesus when does he come to jesus the the john chooses to tell us that he comes to jesus at night and this happens uh one other time in in the gospel of john we're told that some people come to jesus at night because they're they're afraid to be seen with him publicly they're afraid for their lives or their reputation jesus he's it would be embarrassing for nicodemus to be seen publicly associating with this guy jesus has already we actually talked about this story a couple weeks ago jesus already pulled his stunt um in the temple in jerusalem right you remember the stunt he waltzed in he acted like he owned the place and he declared it to be a forest essentially and drove out all of the money changers and so on and stopped the sacrifices from being offered because of the sale and exchange of animals and so on and it's the pharisees and the rulers who come up to him and are like who do you think you are coming to do this that just happened that just happened and so nicodemus comes to him at night and notice look at how he talks look how he talks to him nicodemus is not a spiritual seeker he's coming in response to this this very overt political move that jesus just made declaring that that he has ownership over the temple so he comes to jesus at night and he he says rabbi we know we know that you're a teacher who's come from god i mean who who of course could do the things that you're doing unless god was was sending him now can you read between the lines right here is this guy coming like with an honest like heart searching i need whatever jesus has i need it you know what i mean i'm at the bottom and no he's a he's part of the jewish ruling council who jesus just deeply offended what's he doing right here and this is a sophisticated story right he's he's he he's doing what we all wonder you know goes on at the white house or something like he's doing backroom politics right here that's what he's doing here right so there's the public statement right and at the end of chapter two jesus offended the the ruling elite and so they all like challenge him right and shame him who do you think that you're doing but here he comes at night and nicodemus is like listen we we know the pharisees the ruling elite listen the establishments against you jesus but some of us think that we could help you right you could help us you're a teacher i'm a teacher you know we could we could be very beneficial for it can you read this here it means exactly what's happening right he just offended the group that this man represents but he comes at night saying now listen listen we we know you're sent from god so let's have a conversation and what is jesus's response does he receive the compliment right does he even receive it was he like oh thank you you know that's true i am sent from god but in a way you don't even understand you know he doesn't even like like if there ever was a good opportunity for jesus to be like well i am sent from god but you don't even know what you mean when you say that he doesn't even all he just for the jugular he's just like dude you know what you know what you think it's not possible for anyone to perform signs unless god were with them let me let me tell you another impossibility it's impossible for anybody to see the kingdom of god unless they're born again it just like changes the subject entirely he's not impressed with nicodemus and he's not going to accept his his gesture so what what does he mean what does he mean he just resets the conversation it's impossible to even know god or experience the reality of of the kingdom of god unless you're you're born again what does this mean if it doesn't mean a call to religion and to morality because he's calling a very religious moral man to be born again what does what does it actually mean does it mean to be born again and uh here's i forgot to pull out my chalkboard and how could i forget such a thing don't mind me rachel is there cough there's water in here rachel wherever you are i'm just gonna put your water right here and put this down here for these good good folks okay um as i'm uh want to do i'll teach you uh the word that uh jesus uses the greek word now do some of you have a a footnote by that word born again do some of you have something like a little note and what does your note tell you yeah it says or from above or some of you might have a note that says the word uses actually has a couple nuances of meaning it could mean again or it could mean from from above now this is um this is neat so it's it's neat it's profound so the word um that jesus uses is the greek word anathen anathen let's say it together class unauthentic very good uh onothan so the most basic literal meaning of this word um is from above uh turn the page or look down to verse 31 of chapter three look at verse 31 and jesus says the one who comes on othen is above all the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth the one who comes from above he's talking about himself and john jesus uses this kind of spatial language about from above from below coming down going up as language as metaphors to talk about god's presence jesus's claim is that he comes directly from the presence of god didn't float down from heaven of course he was born right to mary but it's an image that he shares in the very identity of god and he comes representing heaven so to speak and so the word literally means from from above however this word also has a nuance kind of like a figure of speech type phrase that the word means as well which is again born again now this isn't like oh secret deep meanings of the bible language or something like that like we use words like this all the time right that have they have double double meanings actually there's a perfect example floating in english right now which is this phrase i just i can't i hear it everywhere it's the phrase nailed it you guys know this you heard nailed it right you know you know what i'm talking about right so nailed it what does nailed it mean oh look you know there's a nice look at oh i wonder how that um big thing is hanging on the wall right there oh well some people nailed it they nailed it up there right so that's the it's a literal meaning but then it's come in contemporary english to develop this other meaning of nailed it which is like perfect or spot-on couldn't have said or done it better you guys know right and so it's not magical words or something it's just language this is how language works we often use words and sometimes with their literal meaning and then we use the same phrase or word with a kind of a nuance developed meaning and so i think i think jesus is brilliant and that he actually is doing a word play and intends the nuance of of both namely that who who whoever you think you are in nicodemus jesus is just not impressed but he senses that nicodemus needs to be challenged and addressed that his he needs to come to see something fundamental about his life first of all that his life needs to start over that he he needs a new beginning right a new a new beginning but also he he needs to recognize that whatever the form of his new life is going to take if he's going to choose to accept it it's going to have to come to him as a gift and from an entirely new source new beginning and a new what does it mean to be born again and these two nuances of the word i think developed the whole the whole the whole concept now look at nicodemus's response what does he think how does he take jesus to mean which one from above or again nicodemus said now how how can someone be born when they're old nicodemus asked i mean surely they can't enter a second time into their mother's womb and be born right like how does that work now i've often thought like okay maybe like nicodemus is kind of like a feeble old man and he's not so sharp anymore and so he's like well yeah go into your mother's womb again like how does that work like dude you know what i say i think we kind of think of him like he's stupid and so he's like what do you mean jesus born again so no dude this guy is this guy has a sharper mind than any of us way sharper mind he's memorized the whole of the old testament and every all these other traditions around it mine sharp is attack he's a member of the jewish ruling council he's a religious studies professor he's clear i think i think he's surely being sarcastic here right and he's like dude so jesus i'm here to play ball young man some of us are interested in in helping you and we think you can help us what what are you talking are you nonsense what is this nonsense you're talking about being born on anathem you born on with him and what jesus goes on to do then is he goes on to just again ignore nicodemus's whole agenda and he develops what both of these are are all about you need a you need a new beginning nicodemus so just just first think about what what this means he doesn't get it and he's going to try and and convince nicodemus of what this means you need a new beginning it's most it's developed sense this is its literal sense from above again is this kind of developed nuance you need you need a new start nicodemus and that's clearly what nicodemus nicodemus takes him to mean your mother's womb and start your life over again i mean what what an offensive thing to say to an elderly man who's educated he's a person of influence in the community he's been teaching the bible his whole life and he comes to jesus and is like young man you know listen i think we could help you and jesus says you need a new life you know you're just like just like the gumption to say something like that so you know like nicodemus like everything you thought was like legitimately being done for god he's a very religious man everything you thought you knew about god and you knew about god's kingdom and you knew about the scriptures you actually need to like it was a false start your life up to this point has been a false start you need to start over again this what a deeply offensive thing to say right now here's what's interesting this connects to something jesus said to a group of pharisees on another occasion in in the gospel of matthew and it was it was jesus had been in jerusalem again he did pulled his stunt in the temple a group of pharisees were in front of him and he just straight up said to all of them he just said listen you guys do you you know the tax collectors and prostitutes are seeing and entering into the kingdom of god ahead of all of you that's what he says to them the pimps and the prostitutes are ahead of you and getting into the kingdom way way quicker than than you are pharisees and what does he mean by that right he surely doesn't mean that they're more moral and religious than the pharisees so his point is that so here you have these people and this is where perhaps the stereotype of born again comes from in our culture or whatever because when when you have someone they've come to a place in their life where they have hip bottom they are emotionally broken or in any other kind of life crisis a financial crisis or someone on their deathbed somebody who lives in poverty or in a socially socially marginal you know situation people in those life circumstances tend this is a stereotype but it tends to be true tend to be more quick to see their need for a savior for someone to come and rescue them much more quickly than someone who is in a socially comfortable life has you know enough wealth and things are going kind of fine and they're mostly moral and religious person like who's going to be more quick to recognize like holy cow my life's not working out for me nicodemus's life is working just fine for him which means it's going to be more difficult for him to see that he needs to start his life over again which is exactly what jesus is saying like back of the line that's what he said nicodemus your life has been a false start up to this point whatever it means to be born again the first thing jesus develops it's this it's owning that that my life and how i think about things and the way i value things and who i think i am and who god is it's not okay i'm just not okay and the moment i began to think i'm okay is the moment that in jesus mind we begin to totally lose track of reality to be born on with them to be born again now so that's the first thing he means and jesus says what you know so how can be someone born when they're old nicodemus surely they can't enter a second time into their mother's womb jesus once again just died it's like he just is bulldozing over nicodemus right now verse five he just goes on jesus answered very truly i tell you no one can enter the kingdom of god what did he say up in verse 3 he said no one can see the kingdom of god here no one can enter the kingdom of god unless they are born what of water and spirit so the first time he said no one can see the kingdom of god unless they're born on nothing nicodemus doesn't get it so jesus tries again he tries again in using different vocabulary different words and here using vocabulary and words that he knows nicodemus ought to know ought to be familiar with him so whatever it means to be born again it's the same thing as being born of water and born of the spirit born of the spirit we're born of water and spirit now here i think um jesus is playing to nicodemus as as the bible scholar here he's using imagery and language that nicodemus at least ought to know if he's read his bible at all and we know that he's read and taught from his bible for decades decades now jesus is using alluding to at least two passages in the prophets the hebrew prophets that talk about a future day when god is going to bring the kingdom he's going to return personally and bring his kingdom and and restore his world bring justice and the messiah and so on in two of these passages they talk about the coming of the spirit the coming of god's personal presence to to restore and bring justice and and bring judgment and so on and they they talk about the spirit with metaphors of water water and spirit i'll just uh show you because i like to do that kind of thing isaiah 44 this is uh this is yahweh the god of israel talking and he says i will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground i will pour my spirit upon your offspring and here he's talking about uh the faithful remnant of god's people who are going to turn from their sins and see that they need the salvation that comes from god alone and so on and so he says for them i'm going to pour water on them and it's going to saturate the thirsty ground that is their lives and their hope and then he uses this metaphor it's like i'm pouring out the spirit on your offspring and it and my blessing on your descendants and when god pours out his life-giving personal presence like water is going to bring new life do you see with the follow the poetry here they're going to spring up among the grass like willows by flowing streams so isaiah uses this rich metaphor that humanity and and israel gods people are just like this dry parched cracked ground that needs water and when god gives the gift of his spirit it's going to be like water that brings new life out of what is dead there's another prophet uh that came 100 or so years after isaiah and he used the same images of water and spirit but took it in a whole new awesome direction so look what ezekiel says he says i'm going to sprinkle clean water on you and you're going to become clean from all of your impurities and from all of your idols i will cleanse you so here the problem is not like dry parched you know ground the problem is that the hearts of of god's people israel are grimy they're dirty they're impure because they've given their allegiance to false gods who have compelled them to live and to act in ways that have dehumanized them and that have destroyed them and so he says i'm going to wash it's like i'm going to wash your heart wash you again and look what he says here though it's not just washing you externally there's something internally that needs to change he says i'm going to give you a new heart and i'm going to put a new spirit within you i'm going to remove your heart of stone from your flesh and give you a soft fleshy heart now how's that going to happen how how is a human heart the center of of desire and decision making and feeling going to be fundamentally removed and transformed and then here we go i'm i yahweh god says i will put my spirit within you and make it so you walk in my statutes and are careful to obey my laws josh garros mentioned this passage last week when he talked about romans 8 and so on about the the gift of the presence of the spirit this is a whole theme in the prophets and of jesus and the new testament is that the gift of the spirit is this personal presence of of the creator god in your life and there's lots of different ways you can talk about it here it's that it actually this it's inviting a new roommate into your life right it's even more it's not just a roommate it's like it's a covenant it's a covenant partner it's like you're married to jesus and he takes up personal residence in your life in such a way that it begins to influence your very volition and your choices and how you frame and think about things and all of a sudden the things that you used to do that you knew you shouldn't do but you thought they were awesome all of a sudden like you're a christian and now you do them and they're just like they're miserable and they they actually like oppress you at least after you do them right and you feel horrible about yourself and you're like dang it like sinning isn't even fun anymore you know and so that's that's what josh girls talked about last week right and that's what this is getting at here so water and spirit when when the spirit is poured out it's going to be both this a new source of life and that's what jesus is getting at here from from above nicodemus you if you if you don't understand that your life has been a false start up to this point and everything you thought you knew about morality and and religion and who god is in song if you don't see it as a false start you'll you don't know anything about biblical faith and if you don't see that your life needs not just some like additive right so so he comes to jesus as a teacher right and he doesn't say like thank you nicodemus for the compliment and you know you're like you're quite a devout man and i see that there's just one part of your life here that needs some work you have a short temper you know so let's work on that one with you like he doesn't he just goes right for the jugular and he's just like you need a new life and you you actually need your very being to to be animated and driven by a whole new source you need a new life source nicodemus and by the way don't bible scholars here isaiah 44 ezekiel 36 and and you know for real bible geeks i won't get into it go read ezekiel 37 which talks about well harry i'm talking about it even though i said i wasn't going to ezekiel sees this vision of of not just a whole valley of dead people but of just dried withered bones that depicts the people of israel the covenant people and the only thing that will give them life is if the wind comes the spirit and god breathes his spirit and all of a sudden these new human beings it literally it's like muscle and sinew wrap around it would be great to depict this with you know cg graphics today and and to like the sinews wrap around the bones and the bones come together with a great rattling noise that he hears and new human beings are animated by the spirit and i think that's what jesus is alluding to here no one will see no one can even enter the kingdom of god unless the reality of the spirit born of water and spirit comes about nicodemus look at what he goes on to say he says flesh gives birth to flesh but spirit gives birth to spirit you shouldn't be surprised nicodemus that i say you need to be born onathan so flesh mortal humans human beings are incredible image of god like incredible it's human beings are awesome right and so i'm amazed every day living with these two little tiny human beings who've come in to justinize life and watching them grow and develop and you're just like human beings are the craziest things on the planet they are the most bizarre things on the planet i think we we are not they not my sons but we are right they're incredible they're incredible but at the same time we're we're compromised there's something fundamentally flawed and wrong with us and i mean i hope i don't have to convince you of that too too much you know and so even if you're uncomfortable saying there's something really flawed about me i hope we can agree there's something flawed about us right and the human race and it's a very small step to go from us to to me and and so human beings here we are returning human history thousands and thousands of years and like we now can throw technology and money and education at the perennial human problems and how's that working out for us right it's just it's it's okay and we can solve some issues but it's just tires spinning in the mud and jesus says listen like human being human mortal life compromised by sin and selfishness gives birth to more human life that's compromised by sin you can't expect something new just from the same exact source if you if you want a new human life you need a new source nicodemus if you have a cherry tree in your front yard and you're like man i've had cherries you know for a few years now and i'm kind of tired of cherries and the birds get them all anyway you know and so i'm gonna i want some peaches i'm gonna get some peaches so you know what i'm gonna do i'm gonna i'm i've never really watered very faithfully i'm gonna water my cherry tree i'm gonna prune it this winter i've never pruned my cherry tree before meal would prune it and what will you get next summer you'll get you'll get cherries i mean of course this is kind of a stupid illustration but it makes the whole point of that it makes the point that jesus is making right so if you want if you want peaches like don't just work harder at your cherry trees you know say you don't that's trying to reform or change the cherry tree you need a new root you need a new source you need to be born on earthen you need some driving animating energy and life and person in your life if you actually want to get different fruit and don't nicodemus expect that you're going to get who i am if you are trying to fit me into your like religious political agenda framework jesus dude he's so gnarly look he keeps going he doesn't even stop look at verse 8 he says listen that the wind and this goes all the way back a couple months remember the the the biblical words for spirit also mean wind or or breath and so uh here it's the greek word numa that he's using all up above here spirit he goes on and says the wind or the spirit blows wherever it pleases you can hear it but you can't tell where it comes from or where it's going so it is with everyone who is born of spirit to so i i can try and be compelling as i can in explaining this but the fact is is that for the fundamental transformation of the human heart like i cannot predict or engineer that in anybody you have people in your lives that you love very much and they don't want to know jesus they don't care about it and you'll never be able to engineer that inside of them i can't even engineer it in my own life really so much less anybody else's and so jesus is like it's it's it's this organic kind of mysterious existential reality that when a person comes to see that my whole life up until now has been a false start and i need something completely that is not i don't just need to add jesus to my life i need to actually fundamentally scrap my whole way of thinking and living and somehow make jesus the foundation of all of all of that we cannot engineer that in each other that's something that happens that needs to be a deep rooted change that comes from above from an outside source how does that happen or what's happening like what would bring someone to to even want to embrace that kind of fundamental change and i think that's where jesus goes next look at nicodemus's response he's just like huh how can this be nicodemus fast and jesus he kind of gets in his face he says listen you're you're a teacher of israel you called me teacher i'll return the favor you're a teacher too and i'm just talking like basic prophet spirit 101 here nicodemus what do you mean you don't get it what do you mean you don't get it you're israel's teacher said jesus do you don't understand these things listen very truly i tell you we we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen but still you all don't this is a texan another text in you right here y'all but still y'all don't accept our testimony jesus is returning the favor here remember nicodemus said rabbi he says he he does he say i know that you're a teacher come from god do you remember what he said he said we know the group that i represent and so jesus is like touched right very true i tell you we speak and this is a theme that's all throughout the gospel where jesus comes with this claim that he's not just a teacher right he's not just a rabbi and teacher but that he he and and the god of israel are one that he shares in the very identity of god that he comes to to represent and embody the one true god as god as god the son that's all throughout from the first sentences of this gospel and so and so he says i my father the spirit and i we speak of what we know he's not asking nicodemus if like do you approve of what i'm saying is just saying listen like i've come directly from god himself i embody the god of israel himself i share in the identity of god and i'm telling you i know what i'm talking about and you're not you don't believe what i'm telling you if i've spoken to you verse 12 he goes on of earthly things i'm trying nicodemus these metaphors from the prophets birth and water and spirit and you're still not believing and accepting me how are you going to believe if i try and and like use non-metaphorical language and speak of heavenly things listen nicodemus no one has gone up into heaven except the one who came down from heaven he refers to himself as the son of as the son of man just as moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness so the son of man must be lifted up so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him and then what follows john 3 16 for god so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have but have eternal life this is this is really profound what jesus is getting at here so he says nicodemus your life need to first come to this place you need to recognize that whatever your life is going to look like if you accept that your life is a false start it's going to be from outside yourself it's going to be the gift of the spirit a new source of energy in your life and then jesus pulls pulls out this line he says nicodemus like you're israel's teacher right and here you are you're approaching me as a teacher and essentially he's challenging nicodemus because nicodemus doesn't believe that jesus is who he says he is if you don't believe who i am nicodemus then ultimately jesus is saying you're not going to understand who you are if you don't understand me you're not going to understand yourself because jesus is saying i'm not here to just teach you i'm not just like here to add some new examples or inspiration to your life that's already pretty good and just needs to go the next step like you need something else entirely and that's something else entirely he alludes to when he talks about snakes and deserts did you see that in verse 14. he loses the story about moses lifting up the snake in the wilderness do you know the story this is one of the more bizarre stories in the whole bible i think right so as the people of israel they're going through the wilderness they rebel against god and so these poisonous snakes crawl into the camp and start biting the israelites and people are are like getting sick and infected and they're suffering and some people are starting to die and so god tells moses get a get like a bunch of bronze and melt it down and shape it into the image of the snakes that are biting everybody and then put it on a pole and lift it up super high and everybody who looks at that metal snake will be healed you're like the bible is so weird the bible is really strange right it's a bizarre it's a bizarre story so regardless of how bizarre it is what's what's what's that story about it's a story about people who are infected with a sickness and they're dying and and it's connected to their own sin and selfishness and rebellion and then as a result they're sick and they're dying but the very thing that is killing them right the snake is strangely transformed into the very thing that becomes a source of life if they will simply look at it and trust and hope be with me here that's surely why jesus is drawing drawing on this this story because look what he says he says just as the moses lifted up the snake so the son of man he's referring to himself must be lifted up jesus says just like that snake was lifted up so i am going to be lifted up now what's that what's he talking about is he talking about i'm jesus i'm the king and i'll be exalted in heavenly glory over all things is that what is that what he's talking about so what this is the phrase jesus uses a lot all throughout the gospel of john and can you think of a moment where jesus is literally lifted up it is a reference to the cross in the gospel of john jesus's exaltation is precisely the moment that he's hoisted up on to this roman execution and it culminates the whole story because because there according to his claim he is the son of god it's john 3 16 right sent into the world to actually absorb into himself the the collective effects and the consequences of our stupidity and selfishness and and sin and evil and he takes it for us and it takes him to the bitter end death itself but because his com the commitment of the creator god and his love is so deep and so permanent in its commitment to our world that even our own sin and death aren't allowed to be the end of the story and so in jesus resurrection from the dead we have god's fundamental statement to our world to a sinful rebellious humanity that's spinning its tires in the mud i love you i'm here to save you and and what jesus it seems to me is telling nicodemus is nicodemus as long as you look to me as your teacher what you're really telling me is that you you're looking for some more inspiration you're looking for a better example and you know some additive to your life to help you get along to the next step but the whole point is that you're still the driver you're still the source of of your whole journey and and about your accomplishments and you and so on and what he's trying to get nicodemus to see is like you're sick nicodemus you're infected with your own with your own selfishness with your own status with your own sense of accomplishment with with your own desire for the approval or whatever it is he's you're sick dude you're dying and you need a new life and you need a life that's not going to come from just like pruning and watering your cherry tree more like you need a new root to be given to you as a gift you need a savior nicodemus you don't you don't need a teacher and and this this is all connected to the work of the spirit the work of the spirit as long nicodemus is you don't understand these things you're lost it's only when you break through from seeing me as a teacher to also not just he is a teacher but he's more than a teacher and it's actually he can only really become your teacher once he first becomes your savior and so think of it this way you know i don't know if you've ever had the experience of feeling like a horrible christian anybody or anybody so you're just like i'd i'd suck at this like i'm just not very good and you read you know go read the teachings of jesus you know the classic teachings of jesus in matthew chapter five through seven the sermon on the mount and you read those teachings and and if you can finish jesus teachings and be like i'm up for it here i go then like good luck you know what i'm saying like you know let's have a conversation in five years or whatever and likely you'll be able to do some maybe even all of what jesus is saying some of the time but it'll what it'll do is it'll crush you actually it'll crush you because it's both meant to reveal about the goodness and generosity and justice of jesus character but also meant to show us something about ourselves right to show us that there's something more fundamentally wrong with us than just the inability to keep rules you know and to be moral good to get religion and to be born again and be like moral good religious people or whatever there's something more fundamentally as ezekiel said that i need a new spirit i need the gift of god's spirit so let me i mean i'll just i'll speak very honestly because i i don't know how else don't know how else to speak in my own life in the last year the way that i have become most aware of my need to start over or at least a part of my life over and and be energized and animated by the spirit is an area of truth-telling in my life i'm like many of you i'm the i'm a conflict of voider anybody conflict avoiders unite and so i run from difficult tense moments and conversations like i don't even run very fast but i can run very fast right from from a difficult moment and so what so here's what happens is i i noticed this about a year ago this pattern and a door of hope you all have helped expose this deep flaw within my heart right so so you know there'll be a moment that comes up a difficult conversation or maybe like an email or something like that and it's like it's awkward it's a hard subject a hard topic i don't quite know what to do and so what i do is um i just let it get to the bottom of the inbox it just goes down there and then it just and then six months or so i'm like oh yeah those those ones dang it well oops delete you know oh and you know so i'm right so this is my confession i'm trying to be honest and so if that's i've done that to some of you and i'm sorry and here's why i do that why i do it and and it gets even worse of course because some of you have told me hey did you get that question i sent you or whatever i'm like oh yeah where did that go or something you didn't get my response or something you know like oh you and none of you have done this before right you know what i'm talking about and so like what's what is going on there if jesus is just my teacher then i go to jesus teachings and you let your yes be yes and let your nobody know and just like dang it i screwed up again you know and so you know i'll confess and i'll take the bread in the cup and i'll tell friends please pray for me and try harder and and then like that goes on for a while and then it doesn't change and then after a while you start to get like angry with jesus and you're like dang it i'm trying jesus you know like give me a break or whatever and or maybe some of you you get you know you're already prone to self-loathing and so then you're just like i'm a miserable liar and jesus could never love me or some of you are prone towards justifying your behavior and you're like why does jesus think lying is such a big deal in the first place it's really not a big deal dang it jesus why are you such a you know like yeah so you get you get stuck and what is not happening is i'm not getting to the source of the issue and and if jesus is just my teacher then i just look to him and i try harder water the cherry tree prune it or whatever but but jesus is saying dude like nicodemus you're israel's teacher and you don't understand that you need a savior you don't understand that your heart is is is in a state that you can't fix it needs to be given to you as a gift and so what it what i look to what jesus does as my savior i look at a world a large part of which is in the state that it's in because none of us will be honest with each other and we don't tell the truth to each other and we lie and we covet and we do underhanded things to each other and look at our world as a result and jesus comes as the savior representing the love of god to absorb the effects and the consequences in into himself on the cross and i'm called not to just like look more and more at my behavior i'm called to just look what does he say just as the son of man was lifted up like the snake was in the desert you just look you just look at jesus you stop looking at yourself you just look at jesus and all of a sudden you see like in even given the state that my heart is in like he loves me he did that for me he did that for me he loves me and that changes the game it changes the game and and and all of a sudden i view my misbehavior in a completely new way because it's not just about my inability to keep the rules is it right it's actually because my heart my allegiance and what i look to for value and meaning what i look to as my god is you all and your approval of me and the fact that i'm a good pastor and i can remember everybody's name and i can remember all of your prayer requests and even your grammar's prayer requests that you shared with me you know and like and that i'm a responsible person i can handle my email and i want people to think well of me i want people to approve of me because that apparently i think is what makes me acceptable that justifies my existence in the universe as if people like think i'm a good guy or something like that and so what what actually is what am i looking to to make me acceptable to god not what jesus did for me but it's what i'm trying to do for myself through all of you what a screwed up person i am you know and we're all doing this to each other all of the time what a hopeless lot and that's exactly the point that's exactly the point because because if i if i can just get there now jesus says we can work we can work with you once you realize that your life is a false start and that you actually need something new from outside of yourself to animate and so and to animate you and so i need to confess the sin underneath the sin which is not just my inability to keep the rules but it's that i'm worshiping a false god and i'm looking to ground my value and my acceptability in something other than what jesus has done for me and jesus says the spirit is the one who who comes into your life and brings that insight again and again here i am almost 20 years in and i need to like get converted all over again in the last year in this part of my life how you guys doing so how do you get born again you know um and i think that's about a silly question as saying how did you get born you know like how did you get born the metaphor is significant so you didn't get born you just were born right did anybody choose to be born you know no and so what what what you do is simply recognize that someone has labored and gone through pain in order to offer birth to me and i don't like the way to be a truly grateful son is not to like examine her motives like why did you give me birth or something like the whole point is just to look to my mother and be like thank you like you you went through hell for me you bled for me you went through something that was potentially life-threatening for me and and it it melts my heart into a new state and it seems to me that that's that's precisely what jesus is inviting if he's inviting nicodemus to be born again he's inviting all of us to be born again and i need it and you need it and we we need like i don't look for an emotional experience like we were all born in different ways and we all get born again in different ways but it ha it has to involve at least what jesus is talking about here okay i've been talking for a long time so i don't know where you're at and i don't know maybe you're a christian and you just you're not living as if you're born again or you you you're you're recognizing this need but there's just new stuff in your life and you need to confess and get to the real sin underneath the sin not just the rule breaking but like the fact that you have some false god and some false allegiances in your life that motivate you to do the things that you do just like they do me and so we have a time of worship as we do every week ahead of us and let's just pray you guys like this is pray and let's just let's recognize that god's love is with us and for us that the gift of his spirit is available to those who just come to jesus and and look at the son of man lifted up to die for the sins of the world because he loves he loves us amen let me close into word of prayer

Channel: Bible Nerds & Tim Mackie Fans

Views: 2,154

Rating: 4.8974357 out of 5

Keywords: Tim Mackie, Bible Project

Id: wTnD289VFFE

Length: 55min 43sec (3343 seconds)

Published: Sat May 22 2021