WORDS OF LIFE SERIES 54 someone to teach us but for someone to save us.
You cannot be educated into
BIBLE STUDY NOTES OUR LORD’S Christianity. You only become a Christian by a radical work of grace in your
INTERVIEWS heart, which the Bible calls salvation, conversion, or being born again.
by Francis W. Dixon
3. Nicodemus discovered that “flesh gives birth to flesh”.
Verse 6 tells us this. The ‘flesh’ can never be altered into anything other than
Study 3 WITH NICODEMUS BY NIGHT the flesh. We cannot alter the nature with which we were born, and that nature
(Scripture Portion: John 3:1-16)
is a fallen nature. We were “sinful from the time of birth” (Psalm 51:5) – there
has been a moral downfall in every heart. The flesh may be dressed up, it may
The third chapter of John’s Gospel is very wonderful. If you are not a Christian
in fact be religious, reformed and respectable, but it is still the flesh. Are you
you should read it and try to understand its message. If you lack assurance of
only “in the flesh”, or have you been “born….of the Spirit”?
salvation, read it many times and assurance will come. If you want to be ready
to lead others to Christ make sure you are familiar with this chapter. It contains
4. God’s way of salvation is not reformation, or religion, but regeneration.
the record of Jesus’ interview with Nicodemus, who “came to Jesus at night”
Jesus described it as spiritual re-birth – compare verses 3,5,6,7. It is not simply
(verse 2). Nicodemus was the Master of Israel and a Pharisee; no-one in
an outward change, it is a new nature, a spiritual, new birth, the giving of a new
Jerusalem would have been more religious or of finer morals. He had an
life, the start of the life of God in the soul; it is not just patching up the old
enquiring mind and had heard from many people about the miracles and
broken-down life and saying, ‘From now onwards I am going to church and
teaching of Jesus.
going to read my Bible, and I am going to be a Christian!” All that is outward.
God’s way of salvation begins within a man, right at the very core of his
We read that Nicodemus came with his problems and questions, but no sooner
personality, where God implants within him the seed of a new life and he is born
had he come into the presence of the Lord than it was revealed to him (despite
again spiritually, born from above, just as twenty, thirty or forty years previously
being so moral and upright) that he was spiritually blind, dead and lost. He was
he was born naturally.
ignorant of the most elementary and fundamental spiritual truths relating to the
Gospel – and there are thousands of people like that today: they go to church,
5. The new birth is absolutely imperative.
but they are just as blind, dead and lost as Nicodemus (2 Timothy 3:5). We do
Jesus said this in verses 3 and 7, and because the Lord used the word “unless”
not know how long our Lord’s interview with Nicodemus lasted, but consider
in verse 3 and the word “must” in verse 7, we are left in no doubt about the
some of the truths that he would have discovered.
matter. We simply must be born again if we are going to be saved and if we are
going to heaven to live forever with the Lord. Have you been born again?
1. The Lord Jesus is always ready to meet the need of a seeking soul.
In John 3:2 we read of this man’s quest. He did not stumble across the Lord but
6. No-one is too old to be born again.
set out deliberately to meet Him and to bring his problems to Him. If anyone
Look at verse 4 to see the question Nicodemus asked - and the Lord answers in
does that they can be quite sure that the Lord will welcome them and will grant
verse 5: ‘Yes, Nicodemus, you can be born again, not in a natural sense, but
them His help (John 7:37). Compare Psalm 107:9. Nicodemus was thirsty for
spiritually born from above.’ Thank God, it does not matter how old a person is;
the truth and he had a hungry soul that could only be satisfied by the Bread of
he can be born again. By far the majority of Christians were born again when
Life. How great it is when we really mean business, when we put aside all our
they were young, but there is not a single word of scripture that leads us to
prejudices and seek the Lord! – look up Isaiah 55:6-7.
believe that older people cannot be born again.
2. The Lord Jesus is infinitely more than a great teacher.
7. There is only one way to be born again.
In verse 2 we are told that he declared his belief in the Lord as a teacher and
Look at verses 14 and 15. Jesus said, ‘I am going to be lifted up on the Cross,
he gave his reason for this belief, but before he had been with the Lord for long
and the way for the new birth to take place in your heart is for you to trust in Me
he discovered He was very much more than a teacher. Thank God, He is a
completely.’ It is so simple and so wonderful. If you, by faith, will look away to
teacher – quite the most wonderful teaching in the world has come from the lips
the risen Lord Jesus, He promises you will pass from death to life (John 5:24)!
of the Lord Jesus. If you study His teaching, His code of ethics and His
philosophy of life, you will find that His teaching is realms above all other WORDS OF LIFE MINISTRIES
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teaching in its purity, its standard and its authority. But though our Lord is a [Link]
great teacher, first of all He is a Saviour, because our primary need is not for