The Healing Word

Pastor Jack Morris: Friend, you can begin again. You can start over. It's all up to you. He's already made his decision. He's ready and waiting on us.

Guest (Male): We are here today with some great news, possibly the greatest news one can ever receive: that Jesus Christ provides a way to be reborn in this life. Imagine having the ability to start over and what that would mean for you and others around you.

A highly respected Pharisee named Nicodemus was interested in this very possibility but had many questions. Listen as Pastor Jack Morris leads us through the account of Jesus counseling this wealthy ruler through the process of being born again.

Pastor Jack Morris: The greatest news in the world. You know, there's news all the time. News never stops. It keeps going. And not all news is bad news. We're thankful when we hear some good news, and we're going to hear some good news today from God's holy word. And we're grateful for the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ, what he has done, what he is doing. Good news.

Here it is. Let me just cut right to the chase. Good news is you can begin life again. See, I get excited, I move away. The good news is you and I can start over. This is the desire of everybody in the world, I believe, Christian and un-Christian. A new start, a new beginning, the past being gone, starting over.

People change jobs, move to different locations, change churches. There's just a desire for the new, a new beginning, a new start. Now, it's not only for the unsaved. We think the unsaved need Jesus, and they do. We were unsaved, but Jesus came into our heart when we invited him to come in. We were saved, born again, brought into the kingdom of God.

But even Christians sometimes stumble and fall. They make mistakes, do something wrong. Friend, we need to remember this: we have a compassionate God who hears and answers prayer. He will bless us. We can start over.

I remember when I was just a small boy going to the Nazarene Church just down the street from me. My mother put my name on the cradle roll, but they had what they called back then a revival that went on maybe two weeks. And I would just walk down the street, maybe nine years old, go in there, hear the man preach the word of God. How I wanted Jesus! Oh, I wanted the Lord in my heart.

My parents weren't churchgoing people. And for some reason, I believe it's because my mother took me down there one time, and I got a taste. Something happened. I heard from heaven in my soul at nine years old, and I wanted what the man was preaching. I wanted Jesus, and he came into my heart.

Well, then I got into my teen years and I slipped away and began acting like a teenager acts. Stopped going to church, wouldn't go anymore. And then I went to be with my grandmother, and when you're with my grandmother, you go to church. So I went to church and I heard the word of God, and I was smitten again by God's holy word. And I gave my heart back to the Lord, had a new beginning. That happened several times until finally I was there, and I've been there following the Lord.

We all make mistakes as we go along. We slip up in word, in action, in thought. But the Lord gives us a new beginning. And I believe today God is here to help us, to give us a new start in the Lord. I love the word of God. I know you love the word of God. You wouldn't be here if you didn't love the word of God and love God and worship the Lord.

But the good news is what the world needs is Jesus. Jesus is the one that gives the new life. You and I can have new life. Ever since Ponce de León looking for the fountain of youth, people have been looking to get started over again. Friend, here it is. Here it is.

Here's that fountain of youth that not only begins in time but also takes us even into eternity in the life that is still yet to come. It's a quality of life that begins in this world and then carries us into the next world. Friend, hear the word of God. Be blessed by the word of God. The word of God is there to bless us, and we are being blessed by it as we hear it and receive it.

We're going to look at a man this morning who started a new life in Christ. And we're going to follow the example he gave us, Jesus gave us, the conversation between the two of them. And it was a rather progressive thing that happened, and he became that born-again Christian, the first one that would ever have the term applied: being born again.

I remember not too long ago, I was with a group of ministers, and I couldn't hold back any longer. These ministers never used the term "born again." And I was questioning them. Why? Jesus is the one that gave us that word. Just because Billy Graham used it and some others that they may not agree with theologically, you put that out of your vocabulary?

One minister spoke up and repented right there in front of me and the others. And he says, "We have allowed the language of the Bible to be taken away from us." Friend, Jesus said, "You must be born again," or, "Unless you are born again." And friends, I believe we can have several born-again experiences, and maybe we're going to have such as that here even today.

But the man's name was Nicodemus, and I want to give a little background to let us know what we know about him. But yet, what little we know is we know a whole lot. This man, he came to Jesus by night, the scripture said. Now, I think that means maybe one of two things, or both things.

Came by night, I think it was literally dark out because he was a member of the Sanhedrin, which is the Supreme Court of Israel that had 70 members. And he didn't want to influence people thinking that the Supreme Court of Israel was converting over to Jesus. This was a very personal thing. So he was just a brand-new comer, although he was a middle-aged man.

He thought, "This is just between me and that man called Jesus, and I'm just going to slip over there in the night and meet with him and talk with him." He came to Jesus by night in complete ignorance of spiritual things. He was a wealthy man. We know from John chapter 19, when Jesus was crucified, that he and another member of the Supreme Court, it was Joseph of Arimathea, went to Pilate and begged for the body of Jesus so that they could embalm the body of Jesus and bury it.

Joseph's tomb was nearby. The Sabbath was coming on. They had to do their work in a hurry. So they took the body of Jesus and placed it in the tomb. Now, this is the part that Nicodemus did. Nicodemus made that burial a royal burial. Again, John chapter 19, the expense that Nicodemus went to, only a rich man could go to that expense to bury somebody. Only royalty, only a king could be buried with that kind of expense. So I'm sure he didn't spend his last penny on that. I'm sure he had more money. So he was a rich man.

As I said, he was a member of the Sanhedrin. He was a member of this august body of teachers and directed the laws of religion for the state of Israel. He was a Pharisee. There were only about 6,000 Pharisees at any one time. But the Pharisees had committed themselves to obeying the first five books of the Old Testament, the first five books called the Pentateuch, believed to be written by Moses.

They had committed themselves that they're going to obey all of that. That meant they had to read it over and over and over. And they were good people, very religious. But they didn't know Jesus. They didn't have salvation. Their names were not written in the Book of Life.

I think of Nicodemus. Here he is: a wealthy man, a religious man, a ruler of the Jews. He wasn't a down-gutter sinner. Usually, when we think of sinners, we think of perhaps somebody that has broken the law of God and broken the law of the land. They're down and out. They're alcoholics, they're bums of the street, they're sinners. They need to crawl out of their gutter. No. Here was a wealthy Pharisee, well-educated, and a member of the Supreme Court. Friend, good people need Jesus as well as people who are not so good.

He came to Jesus because inside his heart, there was a great unsatiable longing for something else. And I'm thinking today, right now, and I've been thinking about it for a long time, that there's a lot of people in churches... We're all gathered in these little boxes called sanctuaries, and yet, we're not excited about our religion. We're not excited about Jesus. Church just doesn't mean quite that much to us.

The teaching of the word is there but not being received, and we're just not turned on by spiritual things. I'm talking about good, wonderful church members who've been baptized and take communion, but they're missing the joy that God has for them. May the Holy Spirit open our hearts this morning and our minds that we will hear and we will get turned on and we will tell the Lord, "Lord, I'm just not turned on to you. I know you. I know I'm going to heaven when I die, but you don't excite me. Church doesn't excite me anymore."

When we talk to God that way, you know what he does? He just puts his arms around us and loves us and tells us, "I've known that all the time about you. Now you know it. Now we both know it. Now we're all going to get turned on." This is what our Lord has for us and will give to us.

Now, the scripture says in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verse 11, it says, "God has set eternity in our hearts." Now, think of this with me. I believe God is behind this restlessness. There's just restlessness out there. People are longing, looking, rushing to and fro, seeking, but seemingly never quite finding because God has put eternity in our hearts.

Even the unsaved, I'm talking about every living person, every baby born into this world, has eternity. You have it. I have it. It's in our hearts. If we're saved or a Christian or not, eternity is there. And since we are made for eternity, that's why the things of this world and this life don't quite satisfy.

That's what was going on with Nicodemus. He had everything. You talk about having religion; he had it all the way. And yet, he was not satisfied. I think about the people out there that don't care about church; they're not satisfied. But I think about the people in all of these churches around us who also are not quite satisfied.

Christianity just isn't making it with them. Christianity has become a religion, not a person. That person being Jesus. Since we were made for eternity, the things of life aren't going to satisfy us. That that God gives is permanent and lasting. And we need to come to the Lord and ask for that wonderful blessed experience of a relationship, an ongoing, permanent relationship that brings about a fullness and a permanency to our hearts.

There is a sense in every person, whether they'll admit it or not, that there's more after this life. And what we're having here, what you and I are having here this morning in Jesus, it moves right on from this life, right on into eternity. Now, Nicodemus was impressed with miracles. He wanted to see miracles.

There's a church not too far from where we are right now. Years ago, the pastor said this. He said when we were downtown and we were talking about miracles, we had hundreds of people gathered in that big theater. All the balcony was filled up. The downstairs were filled up. People wanted to see a miracle. They were interested in the magic. "Let's have some magic. Let's have some miracles."

They would shout and be happy. And he said, "And then when we stopped talking about miracles, the attendance went down, down, down until we were down to 200 people. And we had thousands at one time." The pastor said that.

Friend, look to Jesus. I'm going to look to him also with you, and he is going to bless us and help us. But it was miracles that drew Nicodemus to the Lord. Now, Jesus had performed very many miracles up unto this time. The only one I can think of is that he turned water into wine. And secondly, that he cleansed the temple.

Now, that miracle turning water into wine just spread like wildfire everywhere. People... "A man out there turning water into wine? Let's go see him!" People want to see the supernatural. And so Nicodemus was one of those people.

And then the cleansing of the temple. Nicodemus, I'm sure, and the Sanhedrin, those 70 members of the Sanhedrin, thought for a long time things were amiss at the temple, that the temple needed a lot of attention, the temple needed fixing. And when Jesus went in and cleansed it, they were happy that somebody went ahead and did what needed to be done.

So this man Nicodemus became very curious, and he went to Jesus to see him by night. Now, let me read to you what he said. Chapter 3, verse 2. He said to Jesus, "Rabbi," or teacher, "we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could do these miraculous signs that you are doing if God were not with him."

Now, think of the statement. I'm going to read it again, but then I'm going to read how Jesus responded to that. He said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him." That's correct also.

Now, how did Jesus reply to that? In reply, Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." That was not the subject that Nicodemus was talking about. Nicodemus was talking about miracles and signs and wonders. And Jesus, so to speak, just cut to the chase and said, "You need to be born again."

You're here looking for an earthly thrill that maybe a miracle might perform. And Jesus ignored exactly what Nicodemus said and said, "Unless you're born again. You need to be born again." Now, notice Jesus did not say to Nicodemus, "Sir, you need to turn over a new leaf," or, "You need to change a little bit," or, "You need to change a whole lot."

No. He said, "You need to be born again. You need to start life over completely, 100%. You need to be born again." Now, I'm thinking today that some of us here today, we need another born-again experience. We need to get excited about our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, get turned on to Jesus. Jesus is here to bless and to help us and to give us that faith, that miraculous spiritual inside experience.

Well, Nicodemus now has a born-again experience, a radical change. Jesus said it's by water and the spirit. I want you to say, "Water and spirit." (Audience responds.) By water and spirit. Jesus, what are you talking about? Water and spirit?

Come on, Nicodemus, listen. Come on, Largo Community Church. Come on, Christianity. Hear what Jesus is saying. Jesus is saying water and spirit. Verse 6, Jesus says, "That which is born of flesh is flesh." If you don't have this experience and you only have the experience that you had when you were born as a baby, then you're only going to grow up and have baby power.

But you need to be born again, Nicodemus. You're searching, you're longing, there's a hunger, you're reaching. Nicodemus came to the right source. Nicodemus then asked Jesus, "What's the process?" Now, Nicodemus, not talking about miracles, not talking about signs and wonders, not talking about how many people they have in church, not talking about things like that. He says, "We're talking about eternity. We're talking about life now and life that carries over into the world to come."

Friend, are you ready to pray before the Lord? Friend, what I have given you today is the greatest news in all the world. You can begin again. You can start over. It's all up to you. He's already made his decision. He's ready and waiting on us. All right, let's bow before him.

Guest (Male): The greatest news in the world is we can start over and be born anew. we can experience rebirth when we look to Jesus, who forgives our past sins and births us into new life.

If today's message has blessed you and strengthened your faith in God, would you consider partnering with Pastor Morris and supporting The Healing Word ministry with your prayers and donating to keep the gospel of Jesus Christ reaching thousands? Go to thehealingword.com and click the donate button to pledge your support. Join us tomorrow for another Healing Word message. Until then, blessings on you.