John 3:1-5 English Standard Version

You Must Be Born Again

1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

What can we learn from the Old Man named Nicodemus? I call this man the Old Nick because I do believe he came to know salvation through Christ.

John 7:50-51 English Standard Version

50 Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, 51 “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?”

Old Nick tried to defend Christ in front of his contemporaries, unsuccessfully. Being a Pharisee gave him a place to stand and be heard but he wasn’t armed with the truth. The whole truth of God had not yet been revealed. Old Nick was firmly entrenched in the failed doctrine of his order. They all had limited understanding and used the law to gain power and prestige. 

Old Nick recognized that God the Father was on Jesus’ side but had not yet come to understand that He was the Son of God and God in the flesh. He did not recognize Jesus in the scriptures that called Him Immanuel, God with us.

Isaiah 7:14

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

A long history of liturgy does not in and of itself reveal all truth. Knowledge alone is insufficient to bring us to a saving grace salvation. We know that knowledge puffs up, builds the ego. 

Ref. 1 Corinthians 8:1

1 Corinthians 1:26

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.

Not many implies that some were and like Old Nick had to let go of what they knew to become born again.

1 Corinthians 15:52

in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

Outlander is our favorite television series which is based on a woman traveling back in time from 1945 to 1743. Times had changed between those two periods of time but some of the older things remain even today. One thing is believing in a lie.

In one episode a woman with a sickly child believed her child had been kidnapped by the fairies. Rather than believe that her child might be dying, she took it to “fairy hill” and laid the child in the “fairy tree” in the hopes the fairies would exchange the fairy child for her own healthy child. We  know better, that is just superstition.

These superstitions are still being played out by people today. They take on many forms and they all play out because people would rather live in a fantasy world than face reality. This is not to say that everyone who believes in lies are insane or stupid, perhaps not even gullible, but have no hope that is based on truth.

God has changed me and He is changing me and He will change me again. My hope for that future is not based on a lie, God has kept His promises to me up until now and His promises are where my hope is founded.

Isaiah 26:12

O Lord, you will ordain peace for us, for you have indeed done for us all our works.

I know this to be true because I have witnessed it in my life. I have a hope for a future that is promised because God has changed me from what I was into the man I am today. I am a changeling. Not one born of superstition but by the Spirit of God.

John 3:3

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

I am born again and I see the Kingdom.

John 3:5

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

I have entered the Kingdom. Jesus is my King and I am His subject. Do you believe my witness or do you believe I am living a lie?