Regeneration Part 1
The Cloak of Darkness: How Men Come to God
John 2:24-3:2

Since this Sunday is communion Sunday, I have chosen to keep my message short in order to give us plenty of time to reflect on communion. I will also try to direct the meaning of this message towards the importance of the Lord’s Supper, hopefully without doing vandalism to the text.

You know, sometimes I like to preach expository sermons and sometimes I like to preach thematically. John Macarthur is a good contemporary example of an expository preacher- it requires doing a lot of grammatical work on the text at hand.

Spurgeon on the other hand is an example of a thematic preacher (although he also preached exegetically). What I mean is that he did not preach systematically through a book of a Bible, rather he usually would take a verse or a couple of verses in a text and use them to shed light the rest of what the Bible taught on a certain topic.

The Apostles also preached both ways- look at Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, or Peter’s Pentecost sermon. Paul once used a command from Deuteronomy about not muzzling an ox when he treads the field as a proof text for paying a pastor for his labour.

Today my theme comes from John chapter 3 and it will form the introduction to a series that I will be preaching in this chapter that I want to call Regeneration.
I am not sure how long it will take, but I want us to spend the necessary time carefully examining both expositorily and thematically, this extraordinarily important teaching and doing our best to leave no stone unturned, before we move on to the next section.

Now, let me put this into the context of the life of Jesus, if for no other reason, then simply to set the stage for what Jesus is about to say. So far in the gospel of John we have seen that Israel is being led by a spiritually blind priesthood (1:21,26) that the nation was joyless (2:3) and that the temple was desecrated (2:16) (For more on this see AW Pink’s commentary on John p. 104).

Also, I want to point out, especially for those studying the book of Mark with Romeo as well as for interested students of the gospel, that everything that has happened so far, is occurring prior to Mark 1:14 (in fact somewhere between v. 13 and v. 14 of Mark; that is somewhere between Jesus’ temptation in the desert and the imprisonment of John.

Back in John 3 we now learn the ruling priests of Israel are also spiritually dead; the spiritual condition of Israel is bleak indeed for even her highest religious office is in darkness. We must ask ourselves, “If the religious elite of God’s people are blind, desecrating and spiritually dead, what hope can there be for the ordinary sinner?”

Well, the answer is, “Lots!” Because our salvation does not rest upon ourselves, but God… the wind blows where it wills.

So if you have your Bibles, this morning I want to look at vv. 1 and 2 of John three, but we will put it into the context of 2:24-3:21 (Read).

Jesus is talking about being born again, it’s what theologians call, “Regeneration.” Regeneration as the Bible knows it is an important concept because, as Jesus says, without having had that experience, we cannot enter the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom of God is the biblical term for the idea of salvation. It is the utter rulership and reign of Christ, our God and King who sits enthroned in heaven and will one day return to the earth to destroy the Kingdom of Satan. To be born again is a transfer of citizenship from Satan’s limited terminal Kingdom to God’s infinite and everlasting Kingdom.

J.I. Packer describes being born again as “the concept… of God renovating the heart, the core of a persons being, by implanting a new principle of desire, purpose, and action, a [a dynamic of one’s character] that finds expression in positive response to the gospel and its Christ.” (Concise Theology). It means that our souls which were dead in trespesses and sins have been made alive together with Christ.

This idea of being born of the Spirit should be nothing new to Nicodemus- Ezekiel prophesied centuries earlier about this, Speaking for God, he wrote,
I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will place My Spirit within you and cause you to follow My statutes and carefully observe My ordinances. (see Ez 36:22-28).
Israel had 500 years before Christ’s coming to think about what that meant.

Now that I hope, I have whetted your appetite for this- Jesus’ first major teaching section in the gospel- I want to focus on one thing that I hope we can apply to communion this Sunday: Nicodemus’s mode of approach- the cloak of night and so the cloak of darkness.

Notice that it says he came in darkness. This is not incidental to the narrative, John points this out deliberately. He will remind us of it in chapter 7 when Nicodemus is referred to as “he who came to Jesus by night” (v. 50). His coming by night is central to this story and the darkness of night signifies something more then that it was late when Nicodemus came to him.

Remember in chapter 1:4ff:
In [Jesus] was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. …[Jesus is] the true Light, which lights every man that comes into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

In that prologue we have an allusion to Nicodemus’s coming, or in fact, to his being drawn to Jesus (“no man can come to Jesus unless he is drawn”- Jn 6:44).

Jesus’ light is shining in Nicodemus’s darkness; his earthen vessel containing the dead water of manmade religion is being changed into the wine of Joy in the Holy Ghost; his desecrated temple is being cleared; light is giving life to darkness.

This is all the work of Jesus. Otherwise no one can approach him for he dwells in unapproachable light. You can only come to him if: 1) you are drawn by him; and 2) in his, not your, righteousness (read 2:24-25).

The theme of coming to Jesus in darkness is the paradigm of this section; it frames John 3:16. Look at how the idea of darkness not only opens but also closes the story. Look at verse 19-21 (Read).

John is trying to show us something and his point is tightly connected to what he said in 2:25.

This morning, when you approach this cup and this bread, approach it as though it represented the light. Before you come ask the Lord to search you and to reveal your hidden sin- let the light shine in the darkness. Then repent of your sins.

Turn your eyes in, not out! Examine yourself, not others (for darkness cannot expose darkness). Do not approach this table if you come in darkness… if you love darkness, your deeds are evil and you will only bring condemnation on yourself.

The Light is the life!