THE RELIGIOUS SEEKER
John 3: 10
INTRODUCTION:
A. One of the things that Jesus did at the
beginning of His ministry was to cleanse the
temple
1. The temple authorities had made a business
out of selling sacrificial animals and
exchanging money for the temple tax
a. These authorities had inflated the price
on both the money exchange and in selling
the sacrificial animals
b. The result was that people left the
temple, not thinking about God and His
goodness, but in how they had been taken
advantage of
2. Jesus went into the temple and did two things
a. He overthrew the tables of the
moneychangers and drove them out of the
temple with a whip
b. Then He announced the purpose of the
temple’s being there-- My Father’s house
is to be a house of prayer, but you have
made it a den of thieves
B. As you can imagine, Jesus’ actions didn’t make
Him popular with the religious establishment
1. From that moment forward, they sought to
discredit Jesus and even to kill Him
2. Later, they would threaten excommunication
for anyone who defended Jesus or became one
of His followers
3. With this in mind, we notice here that
Nicodemus came to see Jesus
a. Nicodemus was a part of the religious
establishment
b. He was on the Sanhedrin court-- the court
that would eventually sentence Jesus to
death
c. He was a teacher of the Law
4. Yet, He came to see Jesus
I. CHARACTERISTICS OF THIS MAN
A. Nicodemus was a man of courage
1. I know we make a great deal out of his coming
at night, but at least he did have the
courage to come
2. What is courage?
a. Courage is not an absence of fear
b. Courage is acknowledging the fear, facing
it and doing what is right in spite of it
3. Nicodemus had the courage to seek the truth
out for himself
a. He didn’t just take what others told him
about Jesus
b. He went to the source-- to Jesus Himself
4. Intellectual courage is needed today
a. Such courage is needed on college campuses
where Christianity is ridiculed
b. Such courage is needed in a world that
scoffs at the claims of Christ
5. With our eternal soul at stake, we need the
courage to seek out the truth
B. Nicodemus had an honest and open mind
1. While others were lambasting Jesus, Nicodemus
said v. 2
2. Based on what he saw, Nicodemus then sought
out more truth
a. Here was a master in Israel seeking truth
from a manual laborer
b. Nicodemus’ search for truth led him to put
aside his ego
3. A search for truth does call for an honest
and open mind
a. God may seek to teach us through a means
that will call for us to humble ourselves-- He taught Balaam with a donkey
b. God may use a preacher that we don’t like
to teach us truth
4. God is seeking those who will be honest with
Him
a. Come, let us reason together
b. Search the Scriptures
5. God can never reach one who has closed his
mind to the truth
C. Nicodemus was seeking something
1. Nicodemus was seeking an inward peace about
his soul and about eternity
2. His religion hadn’t met that need
a. It had brought him outward respect
b. He had given him an intellectual knowledge
c. It had even brought him a degree of
prosperity
3. It hadn’t brought him:
a. Assurance of heaven as his home
b. The power to overcome sin and temptation--
the religious leaders of Jesus’ day were
as mean and wicked
as the Romans-- they just dressed it up in
respectibility
4. Nicodemus was a master in Israel, teaching
Israel about something that he himself
needed-- that is why Jesus asked the
question in v. 10
II. JESUS’ ANSWER TO NICODEMUS
A. Nicodemus needed to be born again
1. The birth he needed was a spiritual birth
from above
2. The agency of the new birth is the Holy Spirit
a. Like the wind, we can’t see the Holy
Spirit but we can see and feel the results
of His work
b. We can’t see the Holy Spirit, but we can
feel His conviction as He draws us to a
saving knowledge of Christ
c. We can see the Holy Spirit, but we can see
the results of His work-- a changed life--
Saul of Tarsus
3. The results of the new birth
a. We become a new creature
b. Not only is our sin forgiven and cleansed,
but we receive God’s very nature as the
Holy Spirit comes to live inside us
c. Peter in II Peter 1: 4 talks about us
being partakers of the divine nature
4. Because we are a new creature with a divine
nature, we can be allowed into heaven as a
child of God
5. John 3:3 unless one is born again, he or she
will not see the kingdom of God
B. How we are able to experience the new birth
1. We are able to experience the new birth
because Jesus made it possible for our sins
to be forgiven
a. He took our sins upon Himself and went to
the cross to pay for them-- Jesus gave an
illustration to point out how He paid for
sin
b. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, so was Jesus lifted up on a
cross
c. Just as the serpent on the pole was the
cure for a snake bite, so Jesus on the
cross was the cure for sin
2. We then experience the new birth by trusting
in Jesus
a. Believing that what Jesus did was all that
was needed to pay for our sin
b. Believing that if we trust in Him, He will
forgive our sin and do a work of grace in
our lives
c. What Nicodemus was looking for was summed
up in John 3:16
CONCLUSION:
A. Do you have the honesty and courage to admit
that you are missing something in your life and
that you need to be born again?
B. Don’t take someone else’s word-- come yourself
with an open and honest heart and God will
recieve you
