The Theme of the Discourse is The New Birth

The Record concerning Nicodemus is given in three stages:

HIS DISCOURSE WITH CHRIST (John chapter three)

HIS DEFENCE OF CHRIST (John chapter seven

HIS DEVOTION TO CHRIST (John chapter nineteen)

The Experience of the New Birth: “Ye must must be born again.”

a. An Individual Experience: “Ye.” If anyone is born again he knows it, and will not forget it. It is a crisis and not a process.

b. An Imperative Experience: “Must.” In order to enter into The Kingdom of God.

Each Kingdom is divided from others by an impassable gulf. As we entered the human family by natural birth, so we can only enter into God’s family by the new birth.

c. An Important Experience: “Be born again.”

The importance and unique value of the new birth does not lie in the number of times a person is born, but in the source from which he is born. To be “Begotten from above” is to be born from a source higher than ourselves and to receive new life from God which brings us into the FAMILY of GOD, the FAVOR with GOD, and the FELLOWSHIP with GOD.

The Explanation of The New Birth

a. The Mystery: The Wind (The unseen Thing) “Whence it cometh and whither it goeth.” The origin and end unknown to human reason.

b. The Movement: “Bloweth where it listeth.” So the Spirit moves according to His will.

c. The Manifestation: “Thou hearest the sound.” As the unseen wind can produce evident results, so does the unseen Spirit produce evidence of the new life.

Israel —A DYING PEOPLE —The World

A Lifted Serpent —A DIVINE PROVISION — A Uplifted Christ

Look and Live — A DYNAMIC PRINCIPLE — Believe and Live