John 3:1-3 CSB – There was a man from the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to him at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform these signs you do unless God were with him.”

Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus, A Respectable man

John 3:1 – Nicodemus “was a man from the Pharisees…. a ruler of the Jews

John 3:10 CSB – “Are you a [or, “the”] teacher of Israel and don’t know these things?”

John 19:39-40 CSB – Nicodemus (who had previously come to him at night) also came, bringing a mixture of about seventy-five pounds of myrrh and aloes. 40 They took Jesus’s body and wrapped it in linen cloths

A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.”  – C.S. Lewis

A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world-and might be even more difficult to save.  – C.S. Lewis

Luke 13:3 – Jesus said, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as well.

Matthew 18:3 – Jesus said, “Truly I tell you,” he said, “unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  

John 3:2 CSB – Nicodemus came to him at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform these signs you do unless God were with him.”

Nicodemus, a Spiritually Hungry Man

John 3:2 begins, This man came to him at night, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God,

Even Respectable People Are Spiritually Hungry without Jesus

1. Respectable People like Nicodemus Need Jesus for Salvation

John 3:3, Jesus, ..unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Ephesians 2:1-2, 4-5 CSB – And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world,…

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!

John 3:16-18 CSB – For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.

2. Respectable People like Nicodemus Need Jesus for Completion

“What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace?

This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself” (Pensées)

Psalm 42:1 CSB – As a deer longs for flowing streams, so I long for you, God.

Colossians 2:8-10 Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elements of the world, rather than Christ. For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ, 10 and you have been filled by him, who is the head over every ruler and authority.

The New Birth

What it looks like

v.3, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

v.5, Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

v.7, Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again.