Latest / Bayside Davis Podcast / The Gospel of John | John 3:1-15

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The Gospel of John | John 3:1-15 · Bayside Davis Podcast

0:04
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Bayside Davis podcast.
0:07
SPEAKER_00: You are now listening to our current teaching series in the Gospel of John.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: Human beings have limitations.
0:22
SPEAKER_00: There are things that you and I can't do.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: There are things that are impossible for us.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: And some of us we don't like to think of our limitations, but thinking of your limitations is actually quite humble, and it's healthy for you as a human being because if you think that you have no limitations, you're essentially saying, I am God.
0:45
SPEAKER_00: And I hope none of us in here think we're God.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: But the reality is that on the spectrum of human beings and God, we realize that we have limitations, but we realize that God has no limitations.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the only thing that God cannot do is violate his nature.
1:07
SPEAKER_00: God can do all things, everything, the impossible, but God can't do something contrary to his being, his nature, his attributes, who he is as a person.
1:21
SPEAKER_00: But God can do the impossible for us.
1:26
SPEAKER_00: And God can step into our lives and do things that we cannot do for ourselves on our behalf.
1:34
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Jesus said it this way in Luke chapter 18, verse 27.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: Jesus replied, What is impossible with man is possible with God.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: That's a great memory verse.
1:46
SPEAKER_00: What is impossible with man is possible with God.
1:51
SPEAKER_00: The great writer on prayer, Andrew Murray, wrote these words: We have a God who delights in impossibilities.
2:00
SPEAKER_00: We don't just have a God who can do the impossible on our behalf.
2:04
SPEAKER_00: We have a God who delights.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: He takes joy in the impossibilities.
2:11
SPEAKER_00: And this is essentially what Jesus is teaching Nicodemus in John chapter 3, one of the most famous stories in one of the most famous books of the Bible, John chapter 3, the story of the encounter and conversation of Jesus and Nicodemus.
2:30
SPEAKER_00: Look with me in your Bible.
2:31
SPEAKER_00: John chapter 3, we're going to pick up in verse 1.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus, who was a member of the Jewish ruling council.
2:46
SPEAKER_00: And then notice verse 10, because there's something I want to frame here.
2:49
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says to him in verse 10, You, Nicodemus, are Israel's teacher.
2:56
SPEAKER_00: Let me just first give you a little description because this helps with the narrative that we're entering into and understanding the plot line of this conversation.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: Nicodemus, number one, was a Pharisee.
3:09
SPEAKER_00: You're like, Wesley, what's a Pharisee?
3:11
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's a great question.
3:13
SPEAKER_00: A Pharisee was one of the two prominent religious sects of leadership in the first century in ancient Israel.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: You had the Pharisees and you had the Sadducees.
3:24
SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees were like the Orthodox theology, believed all the Old Testament, and the Sadducees were kind of liberal theologically, and you know, so on and so forth.
3:36
SPEAKER_00: But both of them assumed a lot of power and influence in the days of Jesus.
3:42
SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees were passionate and committed to observing the law of God as interpreted by the scribes, the ones who wrote the words down and passed them along from generation to generation.
3:57
SPEAKER_00: And they were known for being external in their way of life and worship.
4:02
SPEAKER_00: They liked to show off their religiosity.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: They were focused on religious practices and doing, this is really interesting, especially for our day, doing the things of religious practices rather than a genuine relationship with God.
4:22
SPEAKER_00: So they did all the practices, but their heart was far from God.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: They were external in their observances, but their heart was disconnected from God.
4:32
SPEAKER_00: They were outwardly clean and zealous for religious purity, but they were internally corrupt.
4:40
SPEAKER_00: And they were judgmental and exclusionary and they lacked compassion, and they elevated their rules above the Old Testament scriptures.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: And ultimately they prioritize rules over relationship and outward appearance over inward transformation.
4:59
SPEAKER_00: How many people that have grown up in the church or have been a Christian for a long time can subtly fall into those traps?
5:09
SPEAKER_00: You do the practices and you know the rules and you can quote the verses and you become exclusionary and judgmental, and all of a sudden you realize that you can do all the things that Christians do, but your heart is disconnected from God Himself.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: That was Nicodemus.
5:30
SPEAKER_00: Not only, verse one, was he a Pharisee, but notice what he says next.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: Number two, he was a member of the Jewish ruling council.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: This was known in Jesus' day as the Sanhedrin.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: The Sanhedrin was the Jewish Supreme Court.
5:47
SPEAKER_00: However, it wasn't just a legal court like we would think about in our modern cultural context, it was a religious, political, combination rulership.
5:59
SPEAKER_00: They would rule not just based on the legal system, but their legal system was intertwined with the Old Testament scriptures.
6:07
SPEAKER_00: And so it was very much a religious body as much as it was a legal body.
6:13
SPEAKER_00: There were 71 members of the Sanhedrin.
6:18
SPEAKER_00: 70 plus the leader, which was the high priest or the chief priest during that time in Israel.
6:24
SPEAKER_00: And this group was modeled after Moses and the 70 elders in Numbers chapter 11, verses 16 and 17.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: So this guy was a powerful guy.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: He was religious, he was a ruler, and then third, look at verse 10.
6:41
SPEAKER_00: He was the teacher of Israel.
6:45
SPEAKER_00: Now you might not see this reading your English text, but in the original language, Jesus says, Ha Dedaskalos, which means the teacher.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: Nicodemus was religious, he was a ruler, and he was a very famous, renowned rabbi in ancient Israel.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: He was the model, spiritual guide, and teacher in Israel.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: And notice what happens.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: This religious ruler, renowned teacher, notice verse 2.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: He came to Jesus at night.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: That's where we get Nick at night.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: He came to Jesus at night and said, Rabbi, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God.
7:44
SPEAKER_00: For no one can perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: He comes at night to Jesus.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: Now people speculate.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: Did he come at night to Jesus out of fear?
7:57
SPEAKER_00: Possibly, because the majority of Jewish leaders, especially the Sanhedrin and Pharisees and Sadducees, were opposed to Jesus and he didn't want anybody to see that he was actually curious about who Jesus is.
8:10
SPEAKER_00: And maybe some of you, you come to church out of fear.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: You're like, I just want to hide because I'm not really a follower of Jesus, but I'm curious and I'm interested and I want to learn.
8:20
SPEAKER_00: Or did he come to avoid the crowds at night?
8:24
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus had thousands of people following him, and he knew that if he came to Jesus at night, he would actually have a full conversation and not be interrupted by the crowds.
8:38
SPEAKER_00: We don't know.
8:39
SPEAKER_00: He either came out of fear or he came to avoid the crowds, but we know he came to Jesus and he was curious.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: And he says to Jesus something interesting.
8:49
SPEAKER_00: Number one, he says, You are a teacher from God.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: So he acknowledges that God is doing something through his teaching.
8:57
SPEAKER_00: Remember, he's the most prominent, renowned teacher in Israel.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, and no one can perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.
9:06
SPEAKER_00: You're doing miraculous things in our midst, which means God is present with you.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: There's things that you're doing that only could be done if God was present with you in your ministry, and he's just coming and leaning into his curiosity.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: And maybe, maybe, listen, maybe you came here this morning because you're curious about Jesus.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: And you're asking questions in your heart, maybe not in a literal conversation with Jesus, but you're asking questions in your heart because you're curious about who Jesus is and what Jesus has done.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: Verse 3, Jesus replied to him, very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.
10:01
SPEAKER_00: He says the same thing in verse 7.
10:03
SPEAKER_00: You should not be surprised by me saying, You must be born again.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: No one can see the kingdom of God unless he or she is born again.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of God.
10:17
SPEAKER_00: God's rule, God's reign, God's authority, God's sovereignty.
10:22
SPEAKER_00: You cannot see and experience God and his future kingdom, his redemptive kingdom, the place that he rules, the place that he's going to be with his people, unless you are born again.
10:39
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of God is the rule of God presently in the hearts of his people.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: He's ruling in your hearts.
10:51
SPEAKER_00: But someday the Bible promises us in Revelation 21 and 22 that there's going to be a future rule of God, and the kingdom of God is going to be a literal place and space on this earth.
11:02
SPEAKER_00: By the way, you're not going to be in heaven for all of eternity.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: You're going to be on earth with Jesus, where all things are made right and everything goes back to his original design.
11:14
SPEAKER_00: And so you cannot enter the kingdom of God unless you are born again.
11:21
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to be born again, though?
11:25
SPEAKER_00: This is an interesting phrase to be born again.
11:29
SPEAKER_00: It's an interesting term, even in the original language.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: It can be translated, born again or born from above.
11:38
SPEAKER_00: Born again or born from above.
11:41
SPEAKER_00: What is John saying here as he's writing down the words of Jesus himself?
11:48
SPEAKER_00: Well, think about this.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: At the very beginning of the Bible, Genesis chapter 1 and 2, every human that was born, they were born twice.
11:58
SPEAKER_00: They were born physically, right?
12:00
SPEAKER_00: God gave them life, Genesis chapter 2, verse 7, Genesis 1, 26 and 27.
12:05
SPEAKER_00: And they were born spiritually.
12:07
SPEAKER_00: God breathed into them the breath of life.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: That wasn't just animating their life as a living being, that was also giving them the very life of God, the spiritual life that He intended for them.
12:21
SPEAKER_00: But after Genesis chapter 3, every human being is guaranteed to only be born once.
12:30
SPEAKER_00: Just physically.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: Because Genesis 2:15 through 17 said these words.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord God commanded the man, you are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
12:48
SPEAKER_00: For when you eat from it, you will certainly die.
12:54
SPEAKER_00: Now, you didn't come to church on Mother's Day to hear about that, right?
12:58
SPEAKER_00: Stick with me.
12:59
SPEAKER_00: I got good news for you.
13:01
SPEAKER_00: You will certainly die.
13:03
SPEAKER_00: What is he saying?
13:05
SPEAKER_00: He's saying that when you choose to live your life apart from God, when you choose to do your own thing and go your own way, when you choose to live your life not acknowledging and worshiping and submitting your heart to the one who created you, you are spiritually dead.
13:26
SPEAKER_00: You might be physically alive, but you are spiritually dead.
13:30
SPEAKER_00: Death here simply means a disconnection from God.
13:35
SPEAKER_00: A spiritual disconnection from God because sin, what we would conceptualize in definition, is anything outside of the person and will and design of God for your life.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: Sin separates us from God.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: That is spiritual death.
13:58
SPEAKER_00: And every human being post-Genesis 3 has lived on this earth at one point or another spiritually dead.
14:10
SPEAKER_00: Disconnected from God, separated from God.
14:13
SPEAKER_00: And maybe some of you came in this morning and you are disconnected from God.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: You are spiritually disconnected and separated from God Himself.
14:22
SPEAKER_00: Here's what Jesus is saying some people are born twice and die once.
14:30
SPEAKER_00: And some people are born once and die twice.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: Some people are born twice, they are born physically, and at some point in their life, they are born spiritually and they die physically, but to be absent from the body, good news is to be present with the Lord.
14:49
SPEAKER_00: The minute you take your last breath on earth is the minute you are face to face with God in heaven.
14:57
SPEAKER_00: That's good news.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: Say good news.
15:00
SPEAKER_00: But some people are born once, just physically, and they wander away from God and they live their life contrary to God and they don't acknowledge Him and they refuse to believe in Him and they want to live their own way.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says there's a way that seems right to man, and in the end it leads to death.
15:21
SPEAKER_00: You can live your whole life and you can gain the whole world, but Jesus said, Don't gain the whole world and forfeit your soul.
15:32
SPEAKER_00: This is the conversation Jesus is having with this religious ruler who's a renowned teacher in Israel.
15:39
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, people can be alive physically and dead spiritually, but people can be alive physically and alive spiritually.
15:47
SPEAKER_00: So what is it, what does it mean to be born again?
15:50
SPEAKER_00: Here's two definitions.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: Write these down.
15:52
SPEAKER_00: Number one, to be born again is a supernatural work of the Spirit of God, where he places within a believer, a follower of Jesus, the very life of the Son of God.
16:05
SPEAKER_00: That means you have the life of God in your soul, in your heart.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: Another definition: this is a supernatural work of God, of the Spirit of God, that He makes us spiritually alive.
16:23
SPEAKER_00: You get to choose that.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what you don't get to choose?
16:27
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what I don't get to choose?
16:30
SPEAKER_00: I don't get to choose physical death because it's a guarantee.
16:36
SPEAKER_00: Every single one of us, we're gonna die at some point.
16:38
SPEAKER_00: None of us want to die.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: It's unfamiliar.
16:41
SPEAKER_00: There's just this weird, unknown, a mystery about it.
16:46
SPEAKER_00: Nobody's excited to die.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: But the reality is we don't get to choose death, but we do get to choose life.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: And you came here this morning.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: Not just because you're a mama and your kid invited you, not because you're a mama and you invited your kids.
17:03
SPEAKER_00: You came here this morning because God wants to make you spiritually alive.
17:12
SPEAKER_00: That's the conversation he's having with Nicodemus.
17:16
SPEAKER_00: There's a third century scholar and theologian named Cyprian.
17:21
SPEAKER_00: And he tells his born-again story, and he writes these words A light from above entered and permeated my heart.
17:30
SPEAKER_00: Now cleansed from its defilement, he felt that washing.
17:34
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit came from heaven and changed me into a new person by the second birth.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: Almost at once, in a marvelous way, uh in a in a marvelous way, doubt gave way to assurance.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: And what I had thought impossible could be done.
17:54
SPEAKER_00: Charles Spurgeon, the great preacher in London, England, the 1800s, wrote about the experience of being born again.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: And this is his words.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: What a marvelous life it is.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: If you've been born again, what a marvelous life it is.
18:08
SPEAKER_00: It brings with it new perceptions, new emotions, new desires.
18:15
SPEAKER_00: It has new senses.
18:17
SPEAKER_00: There are new eyes with which we see the invisible, new ears with which we hear the voice of God before inaudible.
18:26
SPEAKER_00: But then have we a new touch, which we lay hold of divine truth.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: Then we have a new taste so that we taste and see that the Lord is good.
18:38
SPEAKER_00: This life ushers in us into a new world and gives us a new relationship and new privileges.
18:49
SPEAKER_00: Nicodemus, you're religious and you're a ruler and you're a renowned teacher, but you, Nicodemus, must be born again.
19:00
SPEAKER_00: Have you been born again?
19:02
SPEAKER_00: Notice his reply, verse 4.
19:05
SPEAKER_00: How can someone be born when they are old?
19:08
SPEAKER_00: He's so confused.
19:11
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, I'm listening to you, but like I'm old.
19:16
SPEAKER_00: How can I be born again?
19:19
SPEAKER_00: Nicodemus asked, surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother's womb to be born.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: Like, he's thinking of this on a physical level.
19:26
SPEAKER_00: Like, this is impossible.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: How can I, Nicodemus, probably in his 60s or 70s or maybe 80s, weighing 180 pounds, enter back into my mom's womb and be born again?
19:46
SPEAKER_00: Like he's so confused.
19:51
SPEAKER_00: You can't be born physically twice, but he doesn't get it.
19:55
SPEAKER_00: He's curious and confused at the same time because the language about being born again, but he acknowledges his mom, and this is might might be a good time to acknowledge our moms right now.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: Like, let's give a shout out to moms right now.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: Listen.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: In an age, in an age, in a therapeutic time where everybody wants to find all the negativities with their parents, why don't we redeem that and be like, that's probably not healthy to sit and think about a whole list of everything that our parents ever did wrong?
20:37
SPEAKER_00: Like, doesn't Jesus say love keeps no record of wrongs?
20:42
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't Jesus say, as far as the East is from the West, so are your transgressions forgiven?
20:47
SPEAKER_00: Aren't we a gospel people?
20:50
SPEAKER_00: Why are we sitting around trying to decipher every single thing our parents ever did wrong?
20:56
SPEAKER_00: I get it, it has a time and place and family of origin, but we've taken it way too far, and especially Christians who should have a redemptive view of life.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: Listen, your mom birthed you.
21:14
SPEAKER_00: That's a big deal.
21:17
SPEAKER_00: Now I get it.
21:18
SPEAKER_00: I get it.
21:20
SPEAKER_00: I get it.
21:21
SPEAKER_00: There, I think you have to recognize that there are situations that are unhealthy and harmful.
21:26
SPEAKER_00: Motherhood, that there are situations where a mom abandons her child, where there's a serious abuse, where a parent struggles with long-term drug addiction.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: In these cases, when you hear about honoring the person who gave birth to you, it can understandably feel confusing and complicated.
21:45
SPEAKER_00: Yet most of us, most of us should recognize what Nicodemus is recognizing here that his mom birthed him.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: So I wrote down ten things I've learned from my mom.
21:58
SPEAKER_00: Ten things.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: You ready for this list?
22:01
SPEAKER_00: Number one, hard work.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: There wasn't a day in my life growing up that she did not work hard.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: Number two, positivity.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: Always positive.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: She got this from my grandma and she passed it on to me.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: Always positive.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: Number three, never giving up.
22:19
SPEAKER_00: So many challenges and mountaintops and valleys and hard things, and she never gave up.
22:25
SPEAKER_00: Number four, cleanliness.
22:28
SPEAKER_00: I thought it was normal.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: I thought, I was like, my house is always clean.
22:35
SPEAKER_00: Always.
22:36
SPEAKER_00: And then I and then I became an adult and I was like that.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: And people are like, why are you so clean?
22:41
SPEAKER_00: I thought I'm just normal.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: This is how I was every day growing up.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: Number five, managing money.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: She's so good with money and she taught me how to manage money.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: Number six, participating in household duties.
22:53
SPEAKER_00: I was a kid and she's like, do the dishes, mow the lawn, you know, do your laundry.
22:58
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I don't want to do this, but when you become an adult, first of all, moms to sons, make them do this stuff.
23:06
SPEAKER_00: When I grew up, I was like, I'm so grateful I did all of that.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: Like, there are men who are overseeing families that don't know how to wash the dishes or do their laundry.
23:20
SPEAKER_00: Come on, men.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: Come on, man.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: Hey, hey, men, men, there is always time to learn new things.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: There is always time to learn new things.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: So if you haven't learned that yet, learn it today on Mother's Day.
23:36
SPEAKER_00: Your wife, your mom will be very happy.
23:39
SPEAKER_00: Number seven, the wonder of seeing the world.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: She's been all over the world, and then she loves for me to experience that with her, taking me all over the world.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: Number eight, number eight, the ability to recount a lot of information.
23:52
SPEAKER_00: This woman has a photographic memory.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: I'm not kidding.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: She can remember numbers from 40, 50 years ago.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: Every single number of transactions.
24:03
SPEAKER_00: She worked in transactions.
24:05
SPEAKER_00: She remembers every number ever that has ever come into her brain.
24:09
SPEAKER_00: Now, I used to have this when I was in seminary, I would be studying for a test.
24:12
SPEAKER_00: I loved tests, by the way.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: I'd be studying for a test.
24:15
SPEAKER_00: And I'd close my eyes and I'd visualize every word on the page.
24:19
SPEAKER_00: And I could I could see the page when I went into the test.
24:22
SPEAKER_00: So I was like, a hundred percent, a hundred percent today.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna get a hundred percent.
24:27
SPEAKER_00: But then I got a few concussions in basketball when I got older, and I no longer have that capacity.
24:33
SPEAKER_00: But it worked at one point, and I was thankful for it for as long as it lasted.
24:38
SPEAKER_00: Uh, number nine, overthinking and OCD.
24:41
SPEAKER_00: She gave both of those to me.
24:44
SPEAKER_00: And then number 10, organization.
24:47
SPEAKER_00: When I was a kid, everything would, my house was organized all the time.
24:49
SPEAKER_00: And then I would organize my closet once a month.
24:52
SPEAKER_00: That was, I I learned that's not a normal thing.
24:56
SPEAKER_00: I love organization.
24:58
SPEAKER_00: Like it makes me so happy.
25:01
SPEAKER_00: Thank my mom for that.
25:02
SPEAKER_00: If you don't like how clean I am or how organized I am, thank my mom for that.
25:07
SPEAKER_00: But we should honor our parents.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: Mom, amazing to have you here this morning.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: Back to the Bible, verse 5.
25:21
SPEAKER_00: Jesus answered, Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the spirit.
25:30
SPEAKER_00: Flesh gives birth to flesh.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: He's thinking of the same thing, like physical birth, but the spirit gives birth to spirit.
25:41
SPEAKER_00: Water and the spirit.
25:44
SPEAKER_00: You need to be born of water and the spirit.
25:47
SPEAKER_00: What is Jesus saying here?
25:49
SPEAKER_00: Well, if you read all the scholars and the commentaries and the thinkers that have spent their whole life bridging the gap of ancient culture and history and language and all the things you do as a good exegete, Bible pastor, theologian, scholars are really unsure what that means, born of water and the spirit.
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SPEAKER_00: Some think that water refers to physical birth, the natural process of giving birth, where the baby emerges and the fluid and all of that stuff.
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SPEAKER_00: Or some scholars think that he's referring to John the Baptist's baptism.
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SPEAKER_00: Where John was previously, right before Jesus came on the scene, baptizing every person in water as a baptism of repentance.
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SPEAKER_00: In other words, turn away from the dead religion of your day and turn to Jesus.
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SPEAKER_00: And then other scholars think that Jesus is referring to the Old Testament promise of spiritual renewal.
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SPEAKER_00: Where you're going to see in a minute there's this unified concept in which water and spirit together describe the outpouring of God's Spirit on his people, bringing spiritual cleansing and spiritual new life to every person who believes in the Son of God.
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SPEAKER_00: But Jesus is saying you got to be born of water and spirit, and flesh gives birth to flesh, and the spirit gives birth to spirit.
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SPEAKER_00: We cannot make ourselves spiritually alive.
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SPEAKER_00: Can I just lean into that for a minute?
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SPEAKER_00: You can try to be religious.
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SPEAKER_00: You could do the prayers and follow the rules and cut certain things out of your life and develop good habits, and you can try to be religious, but every religious act you do cannot make you spiritually alive.
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SPEAKER_00: This is what Nicodemus needed to learn.
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SPEAKER_00: He knew the words, he knew the concepts, he knew the practices, but he was still not spiritually alive.
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SPEAKER_00: So don't try to be religious.
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SPEAKER_00: It's an impossibility for you.
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SPEAKER_00: You will never ever feel like you're enough for God.
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SPEAKER_00: But God doesn't want you to feel that way.
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SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus came to cancel religiosity.
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SPEAKER_00: And Jesus came to make people alive spiritually.
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SPEAKER_00: What is impossible for you is only possible for God.
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SPEAKER_00: What you cannot do on your own, God has done on your behalf.
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SPEAKER_00: So Jesus gives an illustration or metaphor.
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SPEAKER_00: He says, You should not be surprised at my saying, you must be born again.
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SPEAKER_00: The wind blows wherever it pleases.
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SPEAKER_00: You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.
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SPEAKER_00: So it was so it is with everyone born of the Spirit.
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SPEAKER_00: He talks about the wind.
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SPEAKER_00: The wind.
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SPEAKER_00: We live in Davis.
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SPEAKER_00: It gets windy in Davis.
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SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's a light breeze, and you're like, oh, this feels so nice, especially like 90, 100 degree summer day.
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SPEAKER_00: Oh, look, that nice breeze cools it down.
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SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's like a 40, 50 mile an hour, and the trees are shaking and the branches are following, and you you just experience the storm of the wind on a windy day in the city of Davis.
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SPEAKER_00: Think about wind with me.
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SPEAKER_00: Think about wind.
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SPEAKER_00: You cannot see wind.
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SPEAKER_00: Can you see wind?
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SPEAKER_00: No.
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SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're a scientist in here and you got some supernatural scientific explanation I don't know about, just follow me.
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SPEAKER_00: And then you can tell me later, so then I could try to repeat it and fumble it with all your scientific words.
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SPEAKER_00: You're all brilliant.
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SPEAKER_00: You're smarter than me.
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SPEAKER_00: I don't know why God called me here.
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SPEAKER_00: You cannot see the wind and you cannot control the wind.
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SPEAKER_00: You cannot see the Spirit of God and you cannot control the Spirit of God.
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SPEAKER_00: Yet the effects, think about wind.
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SPEAKER_00: The effects of the wind are undeniable.
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SPEAKER_00: You rake up your leaves on a fall day and you're like, yes, my yard is beautiful, and then there's a windstorm overnight, and you go outside and you're like, the effects are undeniable.
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SPEAKER_00: So too, the effects of the Spirit of God on a life are undeniable.
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SPEAKER_00: When I got student of the month, my senior year, people were like, what is going on with this guy?
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SPEAKER_00: It was undeniable that God was doing something in my life.
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SPEAKER_00: The newspaper, it was so undeniable that the local newspaper came to me and they did an article on me.
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SPEAKER_00: Because I was always getting in trouble.
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SPEAKER_00: And now I'm the student of the month in my high school getting straight A's and leading a Bible study.
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SPEAKER_00: And think about your life.
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SPEAKER_00: You can't see the Spirit of God, you can't control the Spirit of God, but the effects of the Spirit of God on your life are undeniable.
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SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is using a plan words because the same word for spirit and wind in the Old Testament is ruach.
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SPEAKER_00: And the same word for spirit and wind in the New Testament is Pneuma.
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SPEAKER_00: They're the same word.
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SPEAKER_00: Wind, spirit, Old Testament, Ruach, wind, spirit, New Testament, Numa.
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SPEAKER_00: Same word.
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SPEAKER_00: Spirit, the wind.
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SPEAKER_00: Undeniable when God makes somebody spiritually alive.
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SPEAKER_00: Notice how he ends this.
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SPEAKER_00: Verse 10.
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SPEAKER_00: He says, How can this be?
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SPEAKER_00: Nicodemus asked verse 9.
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SPEAKER_00: He says, You are Israel's teacher.
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SPEAKER_00: Remember, the teacher, said Jesus.
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SPEAKER_00: And do you not understand these things?
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SPEAKER_00: Question mark?
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SPEAKER_00: Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but still, you people do not accept our testimony.
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SPEAKER_00: I have spoken to you of earthly things, and you do not believe.
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SPEAKER_00: How then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?
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SPEAKER_00: No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who has come down from heaven.
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SPEAKER_00: He's talking about himself, the Son of Man.
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SPEAKER_00: Jesus says to him, You're an expert in the Old Testament.
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SPEAKER_00: You've read it, you've memorized it.
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SPEAKER_00: How come you don't know these things?
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SPEAKER_00: Case in point, Jeremiah 31, 31, 31, 33, and 34.
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SPEAKER_00: By this is the covenant that I make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord.
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SPEAKER_00: I will put my law on their minds and write it on their hearts.
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SPEAKER_00: I will be their God and they shall be my people.
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SPEAKER_00: No more shall every man teach his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more.
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SPEAKER_00: This is this promise coming to fruition.
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SPEAKER_00: Ezekiel wrote in chapter 11, verses 19 and 20, I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them.
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SPEAKER_00: I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.
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SPEAKER_00: Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
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SPEAKER_00: They will be my people, and I will be their God.
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SPEAKER_00: Nicodemus, you should know these things.
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SPEAKER_00: Ezekiel 36, 25 through 27.
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SPEAKER_00: Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean.
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SPEAKER_00: I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols, all your false gods.
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SPEAKER_00: I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.
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SPEAKER_00: I will take from you a heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
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SPEAKER_00: I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statues, and you will keep my judgments and do them.
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SPEAKER_00: And then in Ezekiel 37, the next chapter, God said, Here's the valley of dry bones.
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SPEAKER_00: He gives him a vision, a valley of dry bones.
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SPEAKER_00: He says, Speak to these dry bones.
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SPEAKER_00: And all the bones came together.
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SPEAKER_00: And he said, Speak to the ruach, the wind, the spirit.
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SPEAKER_00: And the spirit gave these dry bones life.
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SPEAKER_00: Nicodemus, how do you not know these things?
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SPEAKER_00: I'm teaching you divine truth from heaven itself.
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SPEAKER_00: And I'm using earthly illustrations like the wind to teach you heavenly mysteries.
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SPEAKER_00: I am the bridge between heaven and earth.
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SPEAKER_00: How do you not know these things?
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SPEAKER_00: But don't miss the last two verses.
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SPEAKER_00: You told me I could riff, so I'm riffing.
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SPEAKER_00: Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.
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SPEAKER_00: Numbers 21, 4 through 9.
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SPEAKER_00: The Israelites were rebellious against God, and so a bunch of snakes bit them.
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SPEAKER_00: How many of you have a fear of snakes?
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SPEAKER_00: I hate snakes.
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SPEAKER_00: They're evil.
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SPEAKER_00: If you love them, I'm gonna have to be thinking about my friendship with you.
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SPEAKER_00: I'm kidding.
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SPEAKER_00: And so Moses pleads with God.
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SPEAKER_00: People are dying.
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SPEAKER_00: They're being bitten by they're poisoned, they're struggling, there's no hospital in the desert.
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SPEAKER_00: So he says, make a bronze serpent, lift it up, and everybody who looks on the bronze serpent will live, who looks on it in faith will live.
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SPEAKER_00: This wasn't some weird thing, it had ancient cultural relevancy and so on and so forth, but I don't have time to get into that.
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SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, the point was trust God and you'll survive.
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SPEAKER_00: What is he saying?
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SPEAKER_00: Everyone, everyone who looks on Jesus who's lifted up, just as the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, so the Son of Man will be lifted up on the cross.
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SPEAKER_00: The serpent in the wilderness, Jesus on the cross.
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SPEAKER_00: Everyone who looks on Jesus, everyone who believes on the Son of God who was crucified on the cross to forgive you and give you spiritual life will live forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever.
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SPEAKER_00: You will never not be with God.
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SPEAKER_00: And that's how it ends.
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SPEAKER_00: But the question is, what happened to Nicodemus after this story?
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SPEAKER_00: Most people just quit there, and then they read John 3.16 and they tell people to get born again.
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SPEAKER_00: But I was so interested, what happened with this man named Nicodemus?
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SPEAKER_00: Can I fill in the story real quick?
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SPEAKER_00: He shows up twice more in the Gospel of John.
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SPEAKER_00: John chapter 7, verses 50 through 52.
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SPEAKER_00: Nicodemus defends Jesus before the Pharisees to be heard.
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SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
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SPEAKER_00: This encounter resonated in his soul.
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SPEAKER_00: Then in John chapter 19, verse 39, check this out.
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SPEAKER_00: Nicodemus is there at the death of Jesus with Joseph of Arimathea.
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SPEAKER_00: And Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea bury Jesus in a tomb guarded by the Roman authorities.
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SPEAKER_00: Nobody would do that unless they had been born again.
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SPEAKER_00: It was too risky in the ancient world.
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SPEAKER_00: He would have been killed, he would have been a social outcast.
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SPEAKER_00: My guess, my hunch, is that he was forever changed by this conversation.
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SPEAKER_00: And my question for you is will you be born again?
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SPEAKER_00: Will you be forever changed by the conversation that Jesus had with Nicodemus?
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SPEAKER_00: Which is the same conversation that God is having with you today in this place.