March 1, 2026

John 3

Great teams bounce back tough.  That’s a great motto for basketball and for life. We’re in Lent now, in the gospel of John, we take a look at Nicodemus today.

Now Nicodemus believed a lot of things, about a lot of stuff, but one thing that Nicodemus didn’t believe in, is that once you’re down, you couldn’t get up. Once you’re out, you stay out. Once you’re down, you stayed down. And you can never, ever bounce back. That’s the dilemma of legalism. Legalism is being obsessed with rituals and regulations. That’s all Legalist’s care about, make sure you follow the rules, make sure you don’t offend God, make sure you get it all right because there’s no second chance, no grace. Nicodemus is right in the middle of it. John 3 begins with this verse, “Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council.”

You know the Pharisees pop up all over in M,M,L,J. Pharisees were obsessed with the law. Pharisees were obsessed with 10 commandments, they were obsessed with keeping the Sabbath, obsessed with paying their tithes, obsessed with making sure they do everything by the book! That’s Nicodemus to a T. There’s more to this Nicodemus guy. We are told he was a member of the Jewish ruling council, AKA the Sanhedrin. It was the 70 member Jewish Senate. Only 70, these were the elite people. And they ruled by a book called the Mishnah. 613 rules that you better obey. No room for error and no bouncing back. So Nicodemus has this going for him to stay on the legal path, he’s a Pharisee and he’s part of the Jewish ruling council. Which means that there is no grace, no new beginnings, there is no forgiveness. So you better watch it! You better look over your shoulder, you better live in fear, you better watch what you say, and how you pray, and how long your robe is and how much you give and when you give that money, cuz if you’re stuck in legalism it’s all about your performance (What you do). And if you don’t do it right, that’s it! No bouncing back! Whack a mole game. Whack, whack, get back in there!

These systems exist in churches and denominations. The system exists in your heart and mine. At my core, I am a little Legalist, and so are you.

John 3:2, “He came to Jesus at night.” Nic came to Jesus at night. And it’s more than just passed sunset. In John’s gospel, light and dark have spiritual connotations. It was very dark spiritually. In John 3:19 it talks about Jesus, “the Light of the world, has come into the world, but the people loved darkness.” We all would rather love darkness, the darkness of never giving people a break. Once you’re down, you stay down. That’s dark. When Judas left the upper room to go betray Jesus, John tells us in chapter 13, the sun had set but it was very dark because Judas was rebelling against the light, against Jesus. And Nicodemus is on the same level. Outright rebellion. When we refuse to embrace grace, that same darkness surrounds me. When I refuse forgiveness, when I won’t cut people slack, when I refuse grace it gets really, really dark.

John 3:3 Jesus talks. He’s not engaging in small talk, He goes right to the point, right for the jugular. Jesus is all about defeating the system, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”  Jesus is telling us our works… don’t work, when it comes to God.

Are you realizing that your works… they just don’t work. We need to be born again. In fact, in the first 8 verses of John 3, Jesus uses born 8x. 8x in 8 verses, ya think Jesus is trying to say something to us?

You hear that word all the time, maybe you don’t understand what it means. It’s just jargon. Well, being born again is more than jargon, it is the defeat of Legalism.

A baby reminds us of being born. None of us helped our mothers give birth to us. Obviously, None of us were telling her to push. We weren’t communicating with the doctor. None of us were pushing from inside.  The kid did nothing. The point is when we were born, the mother did all 100% of the work. Just so, spiritually speaking, God does it all. 100% of the work. That’s the whole emphasis of Jesus, we are born and we are born again. We don’t help in our first birth, and we don’t help in our second birth.

I once heard a bible verse quoted to me, it’s America’s favorite bible verse, “God helps those who help themselves.” There’s just one thing, that’s not in the bible. God doesn‘t help those who help who help themselves. God helps those, who can’t help themselves. God helps those who say “I surrender, I can’t do a thing.” God helps those who raise the white flag. That’s why Jesus says the defeat of Legalism is being born, being born again.

In John 3:5, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.”  Water and the Spirit? What’s that? you know, we call that holy baptism. That’s the new start, the clean slate, a new lease on life. Baptism what is it? Gen 1:2 “the Spirit of God was moving over the water.”  We said it, in Nicene Creed, the HS is the Lord and giver of life. That’s what He’s doing! He’s creating. Just like when you were baptized, that same HS is hoovering over your baptismal water to bring new life. A clean slate. A new start. We’re born again! Born again is not religious jargon it actually means something. It means you have new eyes, to see the beauty of God, you’ve got a new voice to sing God’s praise, you’ve got new hands to serve, you’ve got new feet to run the race of faith, and you’ve got a new heart to love other people. It means, you have bounce back! But Nicodemus didn’t get it. If you are stuck in this sorry system, you’re all about rules, regulations, and your long flowing robes. Nicodemus says you have bounce back because you’re baptized? Nonsense…

John 3:9, “How can this be?” He’s still in the dark.

John 3:10, Jesus says, “You are Israel’s teacher, and you do not understand these things?” IOW, you know the OT, you know Hebrew, you have been to the Seminary, you don’t get it? You don’t understand these things? Nicodemus missed the OT class or he slept through that class. The heart of OT is you can bounce back, it doesn’t matter how low you go, or how many times you fall down. Abraham, wanna know what he did before God called him? He worshiped the moon. God called him to be a blessing to the nations. Moses wanna know what he did? He killed someone. God called Murdering Moses to lead His people out of Egypt. Aaron was an idolater who actually made a golden calf, he was Israel’s first HP. Lam 3:23 God’s mercies are new every single morning. At the heart of OT is grace based faith. It means that we can keep bouncing back. That’s the defeat of Legalism.

There’s more, Jesus isn’t after just the defeat of those man-made traditions, He is after the death of this system. What’s the death of all Legalism. You know it, John 3:16-17, For God so loved (Legalist’s don’t get into love, they are just into laws, statutes, ordinances, commandments) that He gave His One and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.” God the lover, the giver, the Savior, this is the death of all of our accomplishments to achieve salvation. Can God be that giving? that forgiving? Yes. He doesn’t say whoever achieves, He doesn’t say whoever succeeds, or who’s on the board of trustees, He says whoever believes. So did Nicodemus ever believe? Yes, you know he did. In John 19:39 we are told that Nicodemus who came to Jesus at night, is now in the day. He who crept in the shadows is now at the cross with linens and 75 lbs of spices. What changed? The conversation and death of Jesus. Because of the cross he bounced back. Amazing! Because of the cross we will bounce back, every single time. In Jesus name. Amen.