Heavenly Discourse and The Cross

So we’ll consider again at some length this morning where we were last time in Jesus dialogue with Nicodemus. As we recap, we’ll consider again three very important takeaways from this indispensable topic. A topic that we cannot be Christians without an acquaintance with it. That is, with regeneration. It’s necessity, nature, and effects.

It’s Necessity

Regeneration is Necessary “you must be born again” says Jesus. There are a number of things that you can get on without in terms Christian doctrine and still enter the kingdom of heaven. For example. You may enter the kingdom of heaven regardless of your millennial position. Regardless of whether or not you have been baptized or take the Lords Supper.(though these are ordinances and commands of the LORD Jesus and are of great spiritual benefit, they will not bar you from the kingdom of heaven). You don’t have to be Baptist, Lutheran, Anglican, Presbyterian, Weslyian, or Reformed to see the kingdom of heaven. But one thing you must is to be born again, you must be born from above! You don’t need more information, more instruction, or some new Rabbi( Nicodemus). No, you must be born again! And it is necessary because you are blind. You cannot see the kingdom of heaven because you are by nature born blind. And you cannot enter it because you are lamed, crippled and have no one to let you down into the pool that you be healed. We could live a hundred different lives and everyone of them would end in the same result because of our fallenness. Because we are fallen in Adam. We don’t need a fresh start, we must be born again.

I’ve seen and heard of many folks recover from drugs and alcohol addiction in my life. And that’s a great thing. I am in no way saying what has happened in those peoples lives is not positive. We can thank God that they are not steeped in that ruinous lifestyle any longer. But there is also something very sad about it. At least when it’s not born out of the work of God in their lives. It’s that they have a tendency to become proud and self sufficient. And though they’ve been freed from one sort of bondage, and the terrible consequences of that lifestyle, they haven’t been freed from the bondage of sin and self. That bondage from which only Christ can set them free.

It’s Nature

It is a sovereign activity of God. It is a birth from heaven. No amount of human ingenuity can muster it up. This is a science that the human mind can’t master. You can master, biology, literature, history, computer sciences, agriculture, and so on, but no one can master his own soul, no one can master the work of the new creation.

I was bringing one of our last van loads of stuff from my parents house last week and I had stopped to grab culvers and as I got back on the road to eat my dinner and was briefly looking down to dip my fry in my beer cheese sauce, a terrible gust of wind ripped into my van causing me to quickly grab the wheel to keep from going off the road. It was quite a startle and quite frightening. But also very illuminating. I thought, I should have enjoyed this meal in the parking lot like a normal person. No, I realized the sovereignty, the mysteriousness, the intractability, and inexplicability of the wind.

1) I thought, first, could I have stopped or diverted the wind? No. can I go back and catch that wind and examine it in any way? Or could I find out where it came from. It was a relatively quiet day. Where in the world did that gust come from, and where did it go? I have no idea. There was no ability to stop it, no ability to study it, but only to acknowledge its sovereign and powerful effect. That’s what Jesus is telling Nicodemus. We cannot, see it, follow it, control it, etc. And it’s the same with new birth, it is a spiritual and sovereign reality, it’s from God, it’s from above. Raise of hands how many people in this room produced themselves? None. We are wholly passive in our coming into being. Is it not the same in the new birth.

The greek has the ability to communicate one birthing themselves. But it doesn’t, it uses the passive here. For obvious reasons.

And I’m thinking again this week, what are the practical implications of this teaching. To wonder at God’s amazing work. And to learn to despair of ourselves. Here’s your self esteem builder. Here’s your motivational speech…ready?? Despair of your own abilities. You can’t do it! You can’t born yourself again, you can’t save yourself! But God can!

This is the number one evangelicval tactic for us to our children. Despair of yourself and trust in Jesus. Look to God and call upon him.

How hard it is when I see someone who has seemingly turned their life around and I need to say to them, now despair of yourself lest you fall further in to such a ruinous state that you will never come out of it.

Us who are in Christ this morning. Again we need to despair of ourselves and trust in Jesus and walk by faith more and more. When you are born again, Jesus is now living out his life in you. It’s no longer you who live, but Christ living in you.

And that leads us to:

It’s effects

And this is why its effects cannot be hidden. If Christ is living in you do you think that he is going to hide inside of you. There will be powerful demonstrations of his life in you. By the Spirit, you will begin to overcome the srongholds of sin and temptation that you were not even aware of before. You will begin to exercise a confident hope and peace of soul that are totally against the natural fears mankind.

And as we move forward, all of this is beyond Nicodemus grasp. He cannot understand, cannot see, cannot enter, he is altogether unfit for heaven. Not because he needed a new teacher or teaching. But because he needed a new nature.

And that brings us to todays text where we see Nicodemus last words and Jesus victory speech if you will.

Verse 9. John 3:9 “Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”” What should he have said? Jesus, show me where these things are in the Scriptures, help me better understand, I want to know. But it’s, “How can these things be?”

Verse 10. John 3:10 “Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?”

First, We notice Jesus once again using Nicodemus own argument or his own weight if we’re sticking with the Judo comparison.

Lets stay with the Judo analogy, Jesus performs a walk-off throw. Harai Goshi is a move where you throw your opponent quickly and forcefully to their back resulting in immediate victory.

Nicodemus earlier : We know you are a teacher from God. “Are you the teacher of Israel?” Says Jesus. You see what Jesus is doing here and has been doing throughout.

Side: Jesus meets people where they are. Masterfully, he does it. Know where people are who you are evangelizing to. Know where your children are( I know it’s funny to hear that, but there are some who have no clue where there children are.) This is part of the way doors are opened for the gospel.

And the article is emphatic so it is to be read as “that teacher”. We know he is 70 of 6,000 but we learn now that he is the one amongst the 70. That teacher of distinct imminence. And you don’t know the most important thing.

It’s like this…..you go to hear a great pianist, and they can’t play though one movement without a blunder. You’d be thinking, this is that great pianist???

Except, this is the blind leading the blind in spiritual matters. And Jesus wasn’t looking to be impressed, but expecting a working knowledge in the fundamentals.

John Gill’s comments are helpful here:

and the article before the word used will admit it to be rendered, that master, doctor, or teacher; that famous, and most excellent one, who was talked of all over Jerusalem and Judea, as a surpassing one; and now, though he was not only an Israelite, with whom were the laws, statutes, judgments, and oracles of God, the writings of Moses, and the prophets; but a teacher of Israelites, and in the highest class of teachers, and of the greatest fame among them, yet was he ignorant of the first and most important things in religion: and knowest not these things? which were so plainly to be suggested in the sacred writings, with which he was, or ought to have been conversant: for the same things Christ had been speaking of, are there expressed by a circumcision of the heart; by a birth, a nation’s being born at once; by sanctification; by the grace of God signified under the metaphor of water; and by quickening persons, comparable to dry bones, through the wind blowing, and breathing into them, Deut. 30:6; Isa. 49:21 and 66:8; Ezek. 36:25 and 37:9, 10.

John Gill, An Exposition of the New Testament, vol. 1, The Baptist Commentary Series (London: Mathews and Leigh, 1809), 770.

Verse 11. John 3:11 “Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness.”

This is a verse that has been understood variously, and I’m convinced that there is one very straight forward way of understanding it that fits very well with the rest of the gospel and other Johanine lit. That is that it is a reference to Jesus face to face communication with his Father. His intimacy with him as his eternal Word, eternal Son, the eternal Expression of the Father. The Father has never been without his Word or Wisdom, he’s never been without his Son. And it’s fitting here that Jesus would express he and the Fathers testimony concerning redemption, as John the evangelist is about to give us a short explanation of the Fathers loving plan to send his Son into the dregs of fallen humanity.

Jesus is saying, these realities of which I speak are things that I and the Father know and see and are working out even now. That’s as sure a testimony as you’re going to get. What greater testimony could you ask for Nicodemus, you are getting one directly from heaven. In me discourse from heaven is going forward freely and abundantly in everything I say and do. It’s as if the Father is directly speaking to you and working in front of you. Its as if the Father himself were speaking these very Word’s to you even now. Turn with me quickly to several passages. Jn 5:17, Jn 7:16, John 8:26,28, Jn 12:49,50, Jn 14:9,10,24.

Verse 12.

John 3:12 “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?”

I’ve told you things that have many earthly analogies to them. Water, wind, birth. And I’ve told you that I and the Father know and see these things. We know who they are, and have seen their new birth. Both from afar, and intimately. If you don’t believe me know, how can we go on to greater deeper gospel realities, like the fact that I’m eternally begotten of the Father, that I have life in and of myself, that before Abraham was I am. That I am the God-man, or the reality of the cross, or that I am far from the Messiah you all have dreamed up, and that my kingdom is far from what you have postulated it to be. How can I begin to tell you that the Messiah must die to save the world. You can’t receive these things now.

Verse 13

John 3:13 “No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.”

John 1:18 “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.”

John 1:51 “And He said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.””

Jesus is the greater prophet. “I will raise up a prophet like you, listen to Him.” “This is my beloved Son, listen to Him”

Jesus goes up to heaven and speaks from heaven. All of the Fathers salvific plan is being revealed in Jesus, because Jesus is currently in heaven, in heavenly discourse with his Father. Yet, at the same time he is the Son of Man who is on earth. This is the mystery of the incarnation. Jesus is in heaven and on earth. And there is a very important interprative principle here that we need to grab hold of we need to master. It’s called the communication of properties.

Jesus Christ is one person in two natures. He must be or we have no salvation. Our savior must be God and He must be man(Heidelberg). Listen to these Q&A. I encourage all of us to memorize these. These are so important:

Now how do we deal with certain difficult passages such as the one before us. Son of man implies Jesus humanity.

Here is the rule:

Sometimes something is denominated to one nature but is appropriate to the other. Yet at the same time true of the whole Christ.

For example, God purchased the Church with his blood. God doesn’t have blood, but what is true of the human nature is true of the whole Christ, so we can say that God bled and God died, because Christ bled and died. We wouldn’t say that only the human nature of Christ died, because Christ died, and Christ is both God and man. It’s not even appropriate to say that Christ died according to his human nature.

“one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the prophets from the beginning [have declared] concerning him, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself has taught us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers has handed down to us.” We didn’t make this up is what they are saying there at the end.

Another part of this rule is as follows:

Sometimes something is said of the whole Christ that is only appropriately said of a specific nature. Yet, again, true of the whole Christ.

Which is what our text lays out. The Son of man implies the humanity of Jesus( his deity as well), and so to say the Son of man came down from heaven is not appropriate to the humanity( because it was the eternal Son who came down to take on flesh, to become the Son of Man). Yet it is true of the whole Christ. And so we can say —and Jesus can say —that the Son of man has come down from heaven and is(present tense) in heaven.

This is heavy stuff, but it is so important because we will encounter so much more of this in Johns gospel, and it will aid us in future studies together and personal studies of the gospel’s.

And as we consider our text again, Jesus is applying Proverbs 30:4 to himself. Which Nicodemus will have some time to think about. To think about the wonderful mystery of the incarnation!

The one who has ascended and descended is God himself.

“Who has ascended into heaven, or descended? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has bound the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is His Son’s name, If you know?”

Can you express what kind of one this is? Can you tell of his generation. Is he a mere man? Tell me if you know. Jesus is telling Nicodemus, I am the one who has descended and ascended. I am the suffering servant who is Yahweh himself. And I have the words of eternal life. I am the Life. Just as the Father has life in himself, so….

Verse 14,15. John 3:14–15 “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

In Num 21, Israel complains against God and Moses and God sends fiery serpents amongst them. Many die and are dying. And the people acknowledge their sin. They confess their sin. They say, we have sinned against the LORD and Moses. Remember last time when I mentioned that probably there is an idea floating around that proselytes needed to be born again but Israel didn’t. I think perhaps this reference by Jesus is meant to show Nicodemus that he needs to repent before God, it’s not beyond him.

Upon their repentance, God provides the anti-venom, and those who looked to the bronze serpent were healed. The destruction of the venom coursing through their veins was stopped and their bodies were preserved. Their life was preserved. For Nicodemus, and for all who are born in Adam, there is something deadlier coursing through our veins, it courses through the whole of our being. It’s sin. It’s wages is death. Sin is coursing through our being, and it has us on our way to eternal destruction. And unless their be a remedy, there is nothing to stop the eternal ruin brought about by that ancient Serpent. And just as with Moses, and just as with any anti-venom. There is only one remedy. Only those who look to the bronze serpent. If you are bitten by an eastern diamond back rattle snake, the anti-venom for a block mamba will not heal you.

And for us who are all smitten with original sin, there is only one cure, and he must be a sinless Son of Adam, and the Son of God. Our nature must be bruised before it can be exalted. It must be lifted up to die, before it can be lifted up to heaven. The cure only comes through death. And that’s just the Savior that Jesus is. Truly man, truly God. Representing our nature, and able to take the full punishment of the elect. There is no other way.

Why must he be lifted up. So that men and women from every tribe tongue and nation might look to him and live. Might believe in him and have life. All who despair of themselves and look to Christ will not suffer God’s wrath. They will not die the second death. This is the gospel. This is what Jesus came to live and to proclaim as the eternal Word and Expression of the Father. Of the Fathers love for humanity as we’ll see next time.

If you have already trusted in Christ this morning, then let this increases your faith, increase your worship, and increase your adoration of our Savior and triune Lord for such a wonderful salvation. If you do not, then today is the day. Confess your sins, forsake yourself, and look to Jesus and live. Believe in him. Believe the testimony He himself has given today lest you parish in your sins, for tomorrow is promised to know one.

Let us pray.