1. "God does not merely help us accomplish the change we want, but God accomplishes the most fundamental change his people need. If you are tired of superficial, short lived, there it was and there it went change, if you long for something more, come to Jesus, there is no one like him and he will embrace you in his arms."

2. "Friends, it is possible to be religious and blind. You can know the facts of the Bible without knowing the truth of the Bible. Don't mistake theological training for spiritual understanding."

3. "We are in no more control of being born again as we were when we were born in the first place. Anybody in here pick the date on their birth certificate? How about the time? Anybody pick the hospital they were born at? How about their last name?"

4. "It means to look until you see."

5. "We are not born again because we've believed. We believe because we've been born again."

6. "As the bright rays of a morning sun cause the twinkling stars of night to fall behind and fade away, so the light of Christ must increase and our tiny little twinkles must decrease."

7. "Let us beware of lifting up the cross of Christ simply to hang our own glory upon it."

8. "Just because a dad has seven kids doesn't make him a good dad. Just because a dad has one kid doesn't make him a bad dad. A church is to be measured by the health of its members, not their number."

9. "As the new birth is a gift from God, so our new lives in Christ are also a gift from God. We can't live for ourselves. We can't make much of ourselves. We live for Christ."

10. "God often works in ways that we cannot immediately see. When Mark and I talk about this sort of thing, he often tells me, 'Ryan, you just got to think tortoise and hare. Tortoise and hare.' Some ways of doing ministry might wow some people, might make a splash, might be all about the numbers. And you just got to think: see you at the finish line."

Observation Questions

1. In John 3:2, what time of day does Nicodemus come to Jesus, and what initial assessment does he make of Jesus? What might this reveal about Nicodemus's spiritual state?

2. Look carefully at Jesus' response in John 3:3. How does Jesus redirect the conversation away from Nicodemus's opening statement? What specific requirement does Jesus establish?

3. In John 3:5-8, what metaphor does Jesus use to describe the work of the Spirit in the new birth? What aspects of this metaphor help explain why we cannot control spiritual regeneration?

4. Examine John 3:14-15. What Old Testament story does Jesus reference here? How does He connect this story to Himself?

5. In John 3:29-30, what illustration does John the Baptist use to describe his relationship with Jesus? What specific statement follows this illustration?

6. Looking at John 3:31-34, what three aspects of Christ's supremacy does John highlight? How do these relate to Christ's authority?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why do you think Jesus responds to Nicodemus's opening statement about signs with teaching about the new birth? What connection might exist between seeing signs and seeing the kingdom?

2. How does the Ezekiel 36:25-27 passage about cleansing water and new hearts help us understand Jesus' teaching about being "born of water and the Spirit" in John 3:5?

3. What does John 3:16's statement that God loved "the world" reveal about the scope of God's saving purpose? How would this have challenged Jewish assumptions of the day?

4. Why is John the Baptist's statement "He must increase, but I must decrease" (3:30) so significant for understanding true gospel ministry?

5. How does John 3:36 connect belief and obedience? What does this teach us about the nature of genuine saving faith?

Application Questions

1. When was the last time you found yourself trying to approach Jesus like Nicodemus - intellectually curious but keeping Him at arm's length? What happened?

2. Think about your own testimony. Can you identify specific ways that God, rather than your own determination or effort, brought about change in your life?

3. In what specific area of your life are you currently struggling to "decrease" so that Christ might "increase"? What practical step could you take this week to yield that area to Christ?

4. When have you recently measured yourself or your ministry by numbers and outward success rather than faithfulness to Christ? How can you redirect your focus?

5. What "fruitless joy" in your life might God be asking you to release so that Christ can take its place as your true joy?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Ezekiel 36:22-32 - This extended passage reveals God's promise to cleanse His people and give them new hearts, providing crucial background for understanding Jesus' teaching about the new birth.

2. Numbers 21:4-9 - The account of the bronze serpent offers a powerful picture of how looking to Christ in faith brings salvation, just as Jesus teaches in John 3:14-15.

3. Isaiah 40:1-11 - This prophecy about the messenger who prepares the way for the Lord illuminates John the Baptist's role and proper attitude toward ministry.

4. 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 - Paul's teaching about becoming a new creation in Christ expands on the theme of spiritual regeneration and its transformative effects in believers' lives.

Sermon Main Topics

The Necessity of Heart Change Through Christ

Believe in Christ (John 3:1–21)

Exalt Christ (John 3:22–36)

Embracing Christ as the Source of Eternal Life and Joy

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Detailed Sermon Outline

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I don't remember most of my projects from high school, but I do remember one. It was my ninth grade English class. We had spent the semester studying the hero's journey, and we were anticipating our final project. We had to answer the question, How do people change? We had to write a one-page paper, we had to give a one-minute speech, and then we had to sum it all up with one single word.

Several people said love, except as I remember it, nobody defined it very much. Some people said loss, trials, tragedies, you know, that sort of thing. You know what I put? I put determination. Tells a little bit about the high school basketball player in me, had that competitive edge, you know?

I think I really believe that anybody could become anything they wanted to be, if they put in the work. And yet somehow I didn't end up in the NBA. I didn't end up as LeBron James' water boy. Instead, I just ended up as Mark Devers' water boy instead.

So what do you think? What might you say? How do people change? Not just superficially on the surface level, but deeply from the heart. What is needed to bring about that kind of change?

Is it determination? Is it willpower? Is it education or economic opportunity? Is it a journey of self-discovery and self-care? Or are we just asking the wrong question?

How do people change? Seriously? If you look around long enough, it seems like for a lot of people, people don't change much at all. Oh friends, there is good news for us in Christ this morning. God does not merely help us accomplish the change we want, but God accomplishes the most fundamental change his people need.

If you are tired of superficial, short-lived, there it was and there it went, change. If you long for something more, come to Jesus. There's no one like him and he will embrace you in his arms. So you might be wondering, okay, we've been in Revelation, we've been in Ezekiel, we've been in John 17. What are we doing dropping into John chapter three here on this breezy April morning?

Well Mark very generously gave me a couple of preaching spots this spring before Lord willing being sent out overseas later this year. Back in February I had the opportunity to preach these texts for Grace Baptist Church in Singapore so he said, hey why don't you preach John chapter three and then John chapter four again, Lord willing, next month. Grace Baptist began a series through John at the beginning of the year so you can pray for their regular preaching of God's word as they continue to work through this series and you can pray if the Lord wills that I might be able to help them finish it out later on. So while the text is the same and much of my exposition will be the same, the sermon won't be. Before I had them in mind, but lately as I've been praying and preparing for this sermon, I've had us in mind.

And I'm really eager to see what God has for us here in this text today. So if you haven't already, you can open up your Bibles to John chapter three. If you're using a red pew Bible, It begins on page 887. Let's get our bearings with some structure. Our text comes to us in two halves, verses 1 to 21 and verses 22 to 36.

In each half we have an interaction followed by a reflection. Interaction, reflection. The first interaction is between Jesus and Nicodemus. The second is between John the Baptist and his disciples And then at the end of each of those interactions, we get two reflections. These are like inspired meditations coming from John's prayer journal, you might say.

This is him recalling the interaction and then reflecting on it with glorious thoughts of Christ. There are a few controlling musts in the passage. So with the two halves of the text and with the force of those musts, We'll divide our time together under two imperatives. Believe in Christ. That's verses 1 to 21.

Exalt Christ. It's verses 22 to 36. Putting them together, if you'd like the whole sermon in one sentence, here's the main idea. Christ must be believed and exalted. Christ must be believed and exalted.

Now, I gotta warn you, we have a banquet of text before us this morning, and I do plan to at least touch on every verse, so today's sermon won't be a light meal. Hope you enjoyed that bonus song at the beginning, amen?

But I know you all enough to know that you guys come to church hungry for the word of God. It's one of my favorite things about you. It's like you roll in through these doors with forks in your hands and bibs around your necks ready to feast. So although our plate before us this morning is rather full, I trust your appetites are up for the challenge. As we walk through the passage, I pray that we would see Christ must be believed and exalted, for he is our only hope of change.

First, believe in Christ, verses 1 to 21. There's more text here, there's more to cover, so this will be the longer of the two.

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. So we meet Nicodemus, a Pharisee, and not just any Pharisee but a leading Pharisee. We read that he's a ruler of the Jews or later on in verse 10, a teacher of Israel. Chapter two ended with a description of many who believed in Jesus's name in a limited sense because they saw some miraculous signs but that Jesus didn't entrust himself to them because he knew what was in them. The first word of chapter three now could just as easily be translated and.

And John wants to connect the beginning of chapter three with the end of chapter two to help us see that Nicodemus exemplifies those who in some sense believed in Jesus. But with a faith on self-defined terms. With a faith that appreciates Jesus's power but that doesn't submit to his authority. We'll see that this kind of faith is no real faith at all. Verse 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. Notice the setting. It says by night under the COVID of darkness, not to be seen by others. If Nicodemus would have been seen with Jesus, this could have damaged his reputation as a leading Pharisee. But this doesn't just teach us something socially about Nicodemus.

It also teaches us something spiritually. This is one of four uses of the word night in John's gospel. And in every instance, John uses night to refer to moral and spiritual darkness. So Nicodemus was drawn to the light. He had all the education and the accolades and the credentials to make him acquainted with the light.

And yet Nicodemus remained in darkness. Friends, it is possible to be religious and blind. You can know the facts of the Bible without knowing the truth of the Bible. Don't mistake theological training for spiritual understanding. No one is going to heaven because of a position they held at church or some letters after their name.

Religious credentials cannot save you. They might change your reputation, but they can't change your heart. We must believe in Jesus. That's our only hope of real change and ultimately, it's our only hope of salvation. That's the setting at night.

Notice also his assessment. It's a conclusion we know that you are a teacher come from God based on an observation. For no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. And he starts it all out with a polite, half humble, half teacher's pet sort of greeting. Rabbi.

Frankly, his assessment of Jesus is underwhelming. He calls him a teacher, come from God, not even a prophet, much less the prophet or the Messiah, just a teacher, locked and loaded with God's power, more like a magician than a Messiah. We've seen the setting and the assessment. Finally, look at the messenger. Rabbi, we know.

Likely this means that Nicodemus was acting as a spokesman for a small group of Pharisees. He wasn't the only one who had heard about Jesus's signs and he wants Jesus to know that he's not just speaking from his own curiosity. It's yet another way that Nicodemus hides under the COVID of darkness. He takes his eye out of the spotlight and he replaces it with a we. He doesn't want to know what Jesus has to say to him so much as what Jesus just says in general.

It keeps things less personal that way. But Jesus won't have it. Jesus doesn't do impersonal. He won't let Nicodemus think the two of them can have a nice little chat about religion and then Nicodemus can be well on his way. No, Jesus grabs hold of a bright spotlight and he directs the beam right to Nicodemus.

He's the light of the world. So you might come to Jesus at night under the COVID of darkness, but he's not gonna let you stay there. Jesus brings darkness to light. Verse 3, Jesus answered him, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. ' Nicodemus is perplexed, baffled, mind boggled, born again?

What in the world are you talking about, Jesus? At most he had half of a question before. Now he's so confused he's got nothing but questions. Nicodemus said to him, verse four, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?

He's thinking naturally, physically, when he should have been thinking spiritually, biblically. Clearly, this teacher of Israel needs some after school tutoring. So Jesus repeats what he just said in verse three using parallel language since some Old Testament imagery that surely of all people, Nicodemus would understand. Verse five, Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. The truly, truly's in verses three and five help us see that Jesus's answers in both these verses are meant to be understood in connection with each other.

Jesus associates being born again in verse three with being born of water and the Spirit, verse five. In both instances, Jesus isn't describing literal, physical climb back into your mama's womb, birth. He's describing spiritual birth and he's saying that unless you've been born again, you cannot see or enter the kingdom of God. Of all people, Nicodemus should have understood this. If he didn't in verse three about being born again, he should have understood by verse five, being born of water and the Spirit should have made him immediately think of Ezekiel chapter 36.

Passage we just read earlier in the service that Lord willing we'll hear preached later tonight and an entire chapter that Nicodemus would have likely he had memorized. At this point he should have said, oh, of course, you must be talking about the new covenant. Are you the one to sprinkle clean water on us? Are you the one to put your spirit in us? Are you the one to take out a heart of stone and to give us a heart of flesh?

Oh, Jesus, you're not just here to amaze us with some religious power or to teach us some religious lessons. You're here to change us.

Deeply, powerfully in our hearts. This isn't a teacher come from God. This must be the Messiah. That's what Nicodemus should have understood. But he didn't.

He had the knowledge, but he didn't have the understanding. Knowledge can be worked up to and acquired, but understanding, spiritually speaking, must be received. Jesus, perhaps after a brief pause, explains further. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. He's saying, like comes from like.

I'm not just talking about taking what is natural to you, Nicodemus, and making the most out of it. I'm talking about a birth that is beyond you. Outside of your natural capacities, beyond the reach of your determination. In verse seven, Jesus drives this home with an exclamation mark, with the full force of imperative. It's one of our key musts in the passage.

Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' In verses three and five, he gave two big unlesses, two big cannots. Now he puts them together and says, All right, Nicodemus, I'll say it a third time, and I don't think I can make this any more simple for you. Are you ready? You must be born again. It's not a recommendation, it's not a suggestion.

This is a divine assertion for Nicodemus, for any other Pharisee hiding behind his we, and for every person in the world today. You must be born again. Now, before we jump out of our seats and spring into action thinking that this is something fundamentally for me and you to do, Jesus uses an illustration to help us see, Whoa, whoa, whoa. He's the one who's in charge here. Verse 8, the wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.

So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. We are in no more control of being born again as we were when we were born in the first place. Anybody in here pick the date on their birth certificate? How about the time? Hey, I know it's DC, we're a bunch of planners here in the city, right?

Anybody pick the hospital they were born at? How about their last name? My wife and I just had our third baby about a month ago. And let me tell you, this is fresh for us, especially after a little false alarm trip to the hospital that babies come on God's time.

None of us decide to be born. We are born when God decides. Trying to control the new birth of the Spirit is like walking outside, flapping your arms up in the air, in trying to control the wind. We don't control the wind, we can't see the wind, but when the wind blows, we see its effects. In the same way, we don't control the Spirit, we can't make him make us be born again, but when he does, oh, we see it.

The new birth is such a deep and powerful change of the heart that whether it's in our own life or in somebody else's, we cannot not see it. In Ezekiel 36, we encounter the water cleansing, spirit imparting God of the new covenant. Do you remember what happens one chapter later? By the word of his power, rushing ahead like the wind, God makes a valley of dry bones come to life. Those bones couldn't make themselves come alive.

God breathed, and they lived. The new birth cannot be manufactured with effort or achieved with knowledge or earned with good religious behavior. It must be received by the Spirit, always in connection with the preaching of the gospel, blowing as the Spirit wishes. Nicodemus has one more question.

How can these things be?

And then he fades out of the picture back into the darkness from which he came. These are the last words of Nicodemus we'll see in the chapter. But don't lose heart. This isn't the last we'll see of Nicodemus in John's gospel. Later on it seems that Nicodemus does come to believe in a genuine, born-again kind of way.

Just because someone doesn't believe the gospel the first time doesn't mean they won't ever believe the gospel at all. How many times did you have to hear the gospel before you believed it? So if there's someone in your life that you've been sharing with, keep praying, keep being patient, don't lose heart. This wasn't the end of Nicodemus' story and it doesn't have to be the end of your friend's story either. Three P's that I often think of in my own personal evangelism that helped me keep going.

Prayer, persistence, patience. Prayer, persistence, patience. Evangelism is hard work. Most seeds will not grow and real fruit often takes time. Keep praying, keep persisting, keep being patient.

Some plant, some water, but only God makes things grow. For now, we can tell that Nicodemus doesn't yet believe. And we can tell this especially by Jesus' answer in verse 10. Are you the teacher of Israel? And yet you do not understand these things.

But notice how Jesus diagnoses the problem. It's not merely that Nicodemus fails to understand, it's that he fails to receive and believe. Verses 11 and 12. Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know. And bear witness to what we have seen.

But you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? If those verbs sound familiar, think back to John 1:12 where it says that those who receive Jesus and believe in his name, he gives the right to become a child of God. Nicodemus had been a teacher of Israel for quite some time. He had an impressive religious resume, but Nicodemus wasn't yet a child of God.

Perhaps in response to Nicodemus' we, verse 2, Jesus gives him a we of his own. Truly, truly, we speak of what we know, a divine Trinitarian we.

In verse 12, Jesus makes it clear that this is just the basics. This stuff is Christianity 101. The new birth is an earthly thing in the sense that it takes place here and now on earth. And if Nicodemus can't understand the glory of entering the present kingdom, then how could he even begin to understand the glory of entering the future consummated kingdom? Jesus has already furnished Nicodemus's mind with two Old Testament images, the water and spirit of Ezekiel 36, along with the life-giving wind to the dry bones in Ezekiel Ezekiel 37, but before Nicodemus leaves, Jesus gives him two more, verses 13 to 15.

No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, likely referring to Daniel 7. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, number verse 21, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.

That whoever believes in him may have eternal life. Oh man, Numbers 21 is such a good passage. I wish we had time to look at it now, but we don't. So if it's been a little while since you've read it, I encourage you this afternoon, read through Numbers 21. Basically, while the Israelites are wandering and grumbling their way through the wilderness, God disciplines them with poisonous snakes.

The snakes come, they bite the people, but God doesn't leave them there. God tells Moses to take a bronze serpent and to fasten it to a pole, to lift it high, and that anyone who would look on that serpent would live. Here, Jesus picks up that story. He says, All that is all about me. Look to me and live.

I hope that informs some of the way we're to handle our Old Testaments. Jesus will accomplish this by his being lifted up.

This is the first of three times John will use this key phrase in his gospel, always with the double meaning of crucifixion and exaltation. The cross may have looked like a criminal's condemnation, but the cross was a king's coronation. Jesus was not crowned with glory in spite of the cross. He was crowned with glory because of it. He who knew no sin became sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

He redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. Jesus became like a snake so that by his snake bitten wounds we might look to him and be healed. John 6:40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life.

Life. Behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Behold him high and lifted up. Behold him and live. A pastor was once asked, All right, pastor, use that word behold.

That just sounds like a fancy religious word. What does that even mean? Pastor thought about it for a second, took a pause, looked in the man's eyes, he said, It means to look until you see. Friend, have you turned your eyes upon Jesus? Have you looked full in his wonderful face?

Have you looked until you've seen? Brothers and sisters, don't you just love the free offer of the gospel here? Don't you just love that salvation cannot be earned or achieved or merited, that it can only be received with the eyes of the hearts by faith. Before I was in Christ, I used to think that Christianity was basically just a way for religious people to feel good about themselves. Do good things, be a good person, go to church, and then look down on everybody else who doesn't.

Frankly, I would have looked at a guy like Nicodemus and thought he would have been on heaven's VIP list. He's religious, he's a rule follower, he's got lots of the Bible memorized, he uses big, fancy theological words, If anybody would have needed no change to go and be with Jesus, I would have thought it would have been Nicodemus of all people, for sure. Growing up, I had an extended family member who I thought was kind of crazy. She was my great aunt, her name was Aunt Esther, she was a short woman with short hair and these big beady eyes. And no joke, at family gatherings, she'd walk up to us, kind of one by one, corner you over the side, She come up to you and she say, have you been born again?

I remember after I had come to faith in Christ, beginning to read through my Bible, sitting on the floor of my college dorm room and coming across these words from Jesus in John chapter three. I just chuckled to myself. I thought, okay, maybe Aunt Esther wasn't so crazy after all.

I mean, intense, definitely, socially awkward for sure, the best of Evangelism Strategy? Probably not. But crazy for this born again talk? No way. That's straight from the mouth of Jesus.

So before we move on from this interaction to John's reflection, mind if I ask you something? I might sound a bit like my aunt Esther, but in a room this size, I gotta ask, have you been born again? I'm not asking if you go to church. I'm not asking if you know stories in the Bible. I'm not asking if you're trying to figure out your life with Christianity.

I'm asking you, have you been born again? Just like Jesus made the conversation direct with Nicodemus, I'd like to make this direct with you. So whether you're confident you have, you're confident you haven't, or you're somewhere in between, here's one truth all of us need to hear: Believe in Christ. Believe in him. Verse 15, Whoever believes may have eternal life.

And listen carefully to these next few verses. John's reflection gives us three truths about the new birth that every one of us needs to receive and Now, pause for just a nerdy sidebar for a minute. I know you guys are into this sort of thing. You might be wondering, so wait, how do we know that there's a shift from verse 15 to verse 16? That the interaction's over and now we get John's reflection.

You might especially be wondering that if your Bible has red letters here or if you see some quotation marks continuing at verse 16, both of which would be editorial judgment calls. They're not in the original Greek. In short, I don't think we can say for certain, I do think it's possible that Jesus is still speaking here, but I don't think he is. Mainly because the word monogenēs or only, only begotten in verse 16 is never used elsewhere from the lips of Jesus. Nowhere else does he refer to himself as the only begotten Son of God.

John does, back in the prologue, John 1:18 and in 1 John 4:9. John will sometimes call Jesus the only begotten son where Jesus typically just calls himself the Son, especially in John's gospel or the Son of Man in the synoptics. Altogether, it seems more likely to me that verse 16 is an elaboration of verse 15. Now we're getting John's inspired thoughts, not Jesus' inspired words and that John continues reflecting through the end of 21. If you'd like to chew on that some more, I'd recommend Don Carson's commentary.

He was very helpful for me here. Nerdy sidebar is done. Back to the flow of thought. Three truths about the deeply wrought change of the new birth. First, the new birth originates in the heart of God.

Verses 16 and 17, For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should 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. There's good reason why verse 16 is the most famous verse in all of the Bible. It's a really good verse. Kids, if you haven't memorized this verse yet, I couldn't encourage you enough, memorize John 3:16.

Ask your parents to help you. In our home, we use a playlist called the Village Kids from the Village Church out in Texas to help us memorize Scripture as a family. They do different songs on different verses they got one for this one. So play John 316, the Village Kids when you get home. The mission of the Son is John's central focus in the reflection but notice where he begins.

He says, the sending of the Son springs from the heart of God. For God so loved the world. Notice the breadth and the depth of this phrase. It says, Wide as the earth is round. It's for anyone, anywhere, at any time who would ever believe.

Jews like Nicodemus would have known that God loved Israel. They were his treasured possession, right? But God loves the world? You mean the Gentiles, the Samaritans, the tax collectors, the sinners? Those people?

Whoa, whoa, whoa. I don't know about that. That's where the depth comes in. World is not simply a broad and neutral word in John's vocabulary. It's a dark word full of sin and evil and rejection of God.

Elsewhere, John tells us that the world is so wicked that Christians must not love it or anything in it. Don't love the world, he says. And yet here he's saying that God loves the world, which makes it all the more amazing that the new birth originates in the heart of God. Because if the new birth depended on the world's love for God, then none of us would ever be born again and none of us would ever believe. This is why God sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

The new birth originates in the heart of God. Second, the new birth manifests in faith. Notice in verse 18 the centrality of faith. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. John, as typical of John, puts the noun faith in verb form, believe.

John uses the verb 98 times in his gospel. Do you know how many times John uses the noun? Zero. John emphasizes that faith is a motion of the heart. It's a turning away from sin and self and a turning to Christ with trust.

Which means that there's always one unmistakable sign of the new birth: active, living, heart of flesh, pumping faith. Theologians describe the new birth with the term regeneration. Literally, it means to be genesis-ed again.

This is the exact word Paul uses in Titus 3:5 when he says, God saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. To be genesis-ed is to be created, to be regenerated or re-genesis-ed is to be made a new creation. Edwards described it as a divine and supernatural light immediately imparted to the soul. Charnock called it a universal change of the whole man, which is why Whitefield could look at the doctrine of regeneration and call it the very hinge on which salvation turns. Because regeneration is entirely the work of God and we must not smuggle any work of man into it.

Regeneration precedes and enables faith. Faith is the first act of regeneration, the first motion of the heart, but we are not born again because we've believed, we believe because we've been born again. So whether you're confident you're born again, you're confident you're not, or you're somewhere in between, hear the centrality of faith in verse 18. You must believe in Jesus. Believe in him.

Don't be condemned. The new birth originates in the heart of God the new birth manifests in faith. And finally, the new birth continues in the light. Verses 19 to 21. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their works were evil.

For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light. Lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may clearly be seen that his works have been carried out in God. At creation, God said, Let there be light, and there was light. At the incarnation, God said, Let there be light, and the light shined all the brighter.

The light of the world had come into the world. And yet people haven't come to the light. Why? It's not an information problem. It's an affection problem.

Did you see that word in verse 19? It's because they love the darkness. Brothers and sisters, I hope we understand what this means. Before we were in Christ, all we loved was darkness too.

We have no moral high ground to stand on. We just come to the light, we continue in the light, and we know that the bad stuff in us doesn't surprise God, he knows it already, and that the good stuff in us, well, that's not really from us, that's from God. We pursue good works and yet we know that any little drop of a good work we've ever done isn't our own. No, it's been carried out in God. We made a covenant to exercise affectionate care and watchfulness over each other.

How are we going to do that if we don't know what's going on in each other's lives? Let us confess our sins to one another and pray for each other. We might be healed. A small hole can sink a great ship. Don't let small sins linger in your life.

Bring them to the light. The new birth doesn't carry on in darkness; it continues in the light. This leads to the second half of our text. If the first half talks about the entrance into the kingdom, then the second half talks about our position before the king. To put it another way, it's about how changed people have a changed posture.

Again, we have an interaction, this time by John the Baptist and his disciples, followed by a reflection, another page from John's prayer journal. Christ must be believed and exalted. So believe in Christ, number one, and now more briefly, number two, exalt Christ.

Verses 22 to 24. Let's start there. After this, Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside and he remained there with them and was baptizing. John also was baptizing at Enon near Salim because the water was plentiful there.

And people were coming and being baptized, for John had not yet been put in prison. The scene changes from Nicodemus and Jesus talking at night to reports of baptisms, baptisms done by the disciples of Jesus and baptisms done by the disciples of John. Chapter 4 verse 2 makes it clear that Jesus himself baptized no one but only his disciples. We don't know exactly why but it's probably to protect anyone from thinking they got the super special baptism because Jesus did it. Baptism, as we plan to celebrate later on in this service, isn't so much about who puts you under the water as to what the water signifies: the old self being buried and put away and the new self being raised to newness of life with Christ.

Putting it all together, this is just one group of disciples comparing ministry stats with another group of disciples. This is comparison stealing joy.

This is exalting in a gospel minister rather than exalting in Christ. But notice how it begins, verse 25. Now a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification. The debate starts with a question of form.

Many Jews of this day were confused about the nature of John's baptism. Some Jews would bathe daily in cold water with a view towards ceremonial purity. But John's baptism, a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, left a lot of Jews confused. Even though the debate starts about form, notice how that conversation brings up the thing they really care about: numbers. Verse 26, They came to John and said to him, 'Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness, look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him.

Have you ever noticed how easily we can start to measure a ministry's success by its numbers? How big is that church? How long they've been around? Have they planted any churches? How many?

How many elders? How many deacons? How many missionaries? How many volunteers? How many parking spots?

How many spots for childcare? Friends, let us beware of measuring the faithfulness of a ministry by its apparent fruitfulness. God often works in ways that we cannot immediately see. When Mark and I talk about this sort of thing, he often tells me, Ryan, you just gotta think tortoise and hare. Tortoise and hare.

Some ways of doing ministry might wow some people, might make a splash, might be all about the numbers. And you just gotta think, I'll see you at the finish line. And Mark, thank you to your example for all of us of long enduring faithful ministry. Thank you for staying the course. Thank you for helping us value truth more than speed.

You're our favorite tortoise and we love you.

Just because a dad has seven kids doesn't make him a good dad. Just because a dad has one kid doesn't make him a bad dad. A church is to be measured by the health of its members, not their number. God will take care of numbers, big or small. That's His business.

Our job is simply to be faithful, to point our ministries away from ourselves and straight to Christ. John understood this well and he lived it out too. John's ministry wasn't a ministry of comparison or rivalry. He didn't want to exalt himself or to show off his baptism stats. He just wanted Christ to be exalted.

Verses 27 to 30, John answered, A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness that I said, 'I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.' the one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore, this joy of mine is now and then famously summing it all up, verse 30, He must increase, but I must decrease. John references the first words in this book, John's Gospel, John 1:20, I am not the Christ.

And these words, John 3:30, are John's last words. Pretty fitting bookends for a humble gospel minister, amen?

John makes it clear that any fruit from our ministries or the faith to start doing ministry in the first place is not our own. We wouldn't have any of it unless it was given from heaven. As the new birth is a gift from God, so our new lives in Christ are also a gift from God. We can't live for ourselves. We can't make much of ourselves.

We live for Christ. Our lives have been crucified, put away, and it is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us. We live to exalt Him. John illustrates this with the picture of a wedding reception. It's a really good illustration, isn't it?

I mean, what kind of best man on the wedding day would shove the groom out of the way, step in the middle of the aisle and say, Hey, come to me, bride. I've seen some weird things at weddings. I have never seen that. Never. The joy of the best man is in standing to the side looking at the groom receiving his bride, and their joy makes his joy complete.

As the bright rays of a morning sun cause the twinkling stars of night to fall behind and fade away, so the light of Christ must increase, and our tiny little twinkles must decrease. Are you more eager to serve or to shine. It is possible to have a ministry that speaks about Christ, that has an orthodox statement of faith in Christ, and yet that cares so much about its own name or own reputation that it doesn't really exalt Christ. As one pastor put it, Let us beware of lifting up the cross of Christ simply to hang our own glory upon it.

Gospel people believe and the gospel posture is a bow. As I've been meditating on this passage, verse 30 in particular, I can't help but thank God for you all as a congregation. I can't help but think of your self-denying, Christ-exalting labor to foster other healthy churches among the nations. Thank you for hosting Weekenders. I came to one three years ago and it changed the course of my life.

Thank you for bringing on interns and loving on them and feeding them and babysitting their kids, buying them a big stack of books and giving them housing. Thank you for speaking well of other churches in the area. My first time at CHBC, one of the things that really stuck out to me was how little we talk about our own church name and how much we pray for other churches even in the public service. I love your sisterly affection for other congregations that preach the gospel. Thank you for your generosity of spirit with the staff, whether it's Deepak to Delaware, Bobby to North Carolina, Welton to Riverdale, or me, Lord willing, to Southeast Asia.

Thank you for bringing us in, loving on us, and letting us go, even through many tears.

Thank you for caring more about the name of Christ than the name of Capitol Hill Baptist Church. These are some tangible ways that you all come together as a church to say, Christ must increase and we must decrease. That's the interaction. One last reflection. We just heard that Christ must be exalted.

In verses 31 to 36, John gives three reasons why: His supremacy, His testimony, and His authority. We'll hit these quickly. So first, consider the supremacy of Christ. Verse 31, Christ must be exalted for his supremacy. He who comes from above is above all.

He who is of the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all. John asserts that Jesus didn't come from earth. He came from heaven. He hasn't merely been born again or born from above, he came from above to be born below.

Jesus' eternal origin demonstrates his cosmic supremacy. So he must be exalted because there's no one like him. He's above all. But that's not all, Christ must also be exalted for his testimony. Verses 32 to 34.

He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true, for he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. If Jesus' ministry was based on numbers, it wouldn't have been very impressive. He wouldn't have received any awards from the Jerusalem Baptist Convention. John bore witness, or Jesus bore witness, sorry.

To God's true testimony, yet no one received it, John says. He was rejected more than he was believed. Rather than being exalted as the Messiah, he was exiled to the cross. His ministry was not immediately visibly fruitful. It was more like sowing seeds that fell to the ground and grew over time.

As God has set his seal on Jesus, John 6:27, so God's children have set their seals on Jesus too, John 3:33.

They know that Jesus doesn't just speak like some teacher, like Nicodemus had thought. They know that Jesus' testimony is God's testimony and is true. For the Son proceeds from the Father, with the words of the Father, in the fullness of the Spirit. Christ must be exalted because his testimony is triune and true. Finally, Christ must be exalted for his the Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.

Whoever believes the Son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. Christ came with the fullness of God's authority. He is not a lesser delegate on God the Father's behalf. He is not God's VP or junior staffer.

In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. So exalt Christ as the one whom the Father has eternally loved and the one in whose hand the Father has given all things. This is why John can tie up the whole chapter for us quite nicely with verse 36. We see the centrality of faith, the necessity of repentance, and the sharp, clear divide between eternal life and eternal wrath all tied up under the authority of Christ. Whoever believes the Son has eternal life.

Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. We asked it earlier in the service. I'll ask it again. Do you believe the Son or not? Jesus said there are two roads.

One is narrow and difficult. It leads to life. The other is wide and broad and easy and it leads to destruction. There is no other way. If you believe and your faith is evidenced by sincere obedience, imperfect but sincere, you have eternal life and it's yours today.

If you don't, please hear this warning: the wrath of God remains on you. You and God are not okay. This is your greatest problem in your life. So come to Christ. He drank the cup of the Father's wrath.

He gives life to all who believe. So turn away from your sins, look to Christ, and live. If you want to talk more about that, talk to the person next to you after the service or talk to one of the pastors who will be standing out the doors. We did it, 36 verses. Good work, team.

What a banquet, right? There's more on the table, but I think our bellies are full. Christ must be believed and exalted, so believe in him and exalt him, for he is our only hope of change. Reflecting on his conversion, the fourth century North African pastor Augustine said, A few of my favorite sentences I've ever read.

How sweet it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys which I had once so feared to lose. You drove them from me, you who are the true sovereign joy. You drove them from me and took their place. That's what it sounds like to be born again. That's the changed posture of a changed man.

Not by determination, but grace. By God's strength, He drives away our fruitless joys, and by God's love, He takes their place. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you that you did not withhold your Son from us. You did not spare Him. And Lord, by giving him, we can trust you as the one who will give us all things. We pray, God, that we would see in Christ what you have always seen in him. Help him be high and lifted up in our hearts.

Cause us to look to him and live. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.