Embracing What I Cannot Understand

John 3:9-13 ESV

9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? 11 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. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

An old saying that people will jokingly say but at the same time, will actually sometimes mean is, “I’ve made up my mind… now don’t confuse me with the facts!”.

Essentially, what that saying means is that that person has established an opinion about something, and they want to stick with what they hold to be true. And because they want to stick to what they hold to be true, they don’t want to hear any other point of view, especially if that other point of view will show them that they have been wrong all along.

You know, sometimes we get in a rut, in a nice, comfortable rut. And when we are there in our comfortable rut, the last thing that we want is for someone to come along and show us why staying in our particular, comfortable rut is not a good thing. In other words, we may essentially say, “Look, you may be right, but I don’t want you to be right. So, just don’t share what’s on your mind, because if you are right, I don’t want to know!”.

And an aspect of this kind of mindset comes to pass when someone does something that he or she feels is right and then comes to you and doesn’t really want your opinion or your advice, even though they may say that they want it, but instead, the “advice” that such a person wants you to give them is an affirmation of what he or she has already done.

As a pastor, whenever I have someone reach out to me for advice, there are some occasions when what the person really wants is for me to reaffirm whatever he or she already feels is right. Or even worse, he or she will have already done something and then basically want my “blessing”, want me to say that whatever he or she has done is exactly what they should have done, that this is what God wants for them!

But it’s not as though I am exempt from this either. I find myself doing this quite often. I would hate to think how many times it has been that I come to my wife and tell her that I want her opinion about something, but in all reality, I just want her to justify whatever I already want to do, or to tell me that whatever I have already done was just the right thing to do.

But what people often don’t like when they ask me for my opinion on something, and what I don’t like when I ask my wife or a close friend for their opinion on something is when that opinion or that advice doesn’t line up with what I feel is right… even if I know deep down that they’re right.

Like I said, “I’ve made up my mind, now don’t confuse me with the facts!”.

As we read more into this conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, what we see, in our reading from last week, and especially our reading from today is this same kind of mindset of “I’ve made up my mind, now don’t confuse me with the facts” being displayed by Nicodemus.

Now, as we said in our first sermon in this series, Nicodemus originally came to Jesus because, as verse two of this chapter tells us, he believed that Jesus had come from God. So, he comes to Jesus, seeking heavenly wisdom from Him.

But the first thing that Jesus told Nicodemus is that before he can see the kingdom of God, he must be born again. Nicodemus was confused by this truth and furthermore, he questioned this truth. He said, “Born again? How can a man be born again?”

So, in this, Nicodemus both asks, “Why must I be born again?” and also, “If I must be born again, how can I accomplish it?” But Jesus rocked his world when He said that man has no say in his rebirth, but rather, God the Father chooses whom He wants to be born again, and the Holy Spirit applies that new birth to the ones whom the Father has chosen.

Now, this is unfathomable to the natural human mind, the mind that says that if I will have something then I must do something to have it! This is exactly what Nicodemus had reasoned, and so, this statement of Jesus, that the new birth is not only necessary, but also inexplicable, freely coming upon whomever the Spirit wills to come upon apart from any conditions needing to be met by the one that He comes upon causes Nicodemus to be more bewildered than ever!

And because this is the case, we read of the response of Nicodemus is verse nine of our reading, which says:

John 3:9 ESV

9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”

“How can these things be?!” “That’s not what I’ve been taught! That’s what I’ve been told! That’s not what I’ve always believed!” He comes to Jesus seeking heavenly truth, but he is unable to grasp the simple truth that God works where He wills, in whom He wills, however He wills.

Instead, just like most other Jews of his time, he mistakenly believed that if he is a saved person, then he has done something to cause himself to be a saved person. Or, if he feels as though his salvation is not secure, then there must be something that he himself must do in order to seal and secure his own salvation.

He insists that there must be something that can be grasped beyond the mysterious, that there must be something that can explain how man can cause himself to be saved.

As I said, he’s bewildered. He says that he comes to seek the truth, but as soon as he is presented with the truth, he says, “That’s not true!”.

And so, look at how Jesus responds to Nicodemus, first looking at verse ten, which reads:

John 3:10 ESV

10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?

Look at how Jesus speaks of Nicodemus, saying that Nicodemus is the teacher of Israel. This means that he is a prominent teacher of the orthodox faith in Israel and therefore must have taught on a great many occasions what was required to be admitted to the society of the faithful and to enjoy the age to come.

Nicodemus understood that this kingdom of God was made up of those who were made righteous. But the issue that Nicodemus was struggling with here was how one was made righteous.

The standard Jewish teaching was that one becomes righteous by being Jewish and by commandment-keeping. And surely, this is what Nicodemus, a great teacher in Israel had taught to a countless number of people: that Jewish commandment-keeping was the key to entering the kingdom of God.

And, you know, that is easy to understand. Do this, and then this will happen. And that was the common teaching of the Jewish Rabbis: be Jewish and keep the commandments, then you will be saved and can go to heaven.

That can be easily understood and grasped, it still wouldn’t be correct, it would still be impossible to do, but at least you can understand the process and grasp it intellectually.

It’s almost as though what Nicodemus was doing here is what we said at the beginning of this message. He said that he came to be taught by Jesus, but it appears as though what he actually wants Jesus to do is tell him that what he already believed was true, was in fact true, that being Jewish and keeping the commandments makes you righteous and grants you entry into the kingdom of God.

As I said, that is what Nicodemus had surely taught so many people, but that’s not what Jesus said. Instead, Jesus speaks of a rebirth by the Spirit of God. A rebirth that is inexplicable, outside the realm of reason, unable to even entertain the idea of being apprehended or accomplished by any.

And so, Jesus tells Nicodemus, “This truth, the spiritual rebirth, it is foundational, it is necessary, without it you cannot see the kingdom of God, you will never be righteous without it, and you, Nicodemus, are responsible for teaching others how they may obtain admittance to the kingdom, yet you don’t even understand the most foundational aspect of the kingdom?”

As we then continue to read the response of Jesus, we look now to verse eleven, which reads:

John 3:11 ESV

11 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.

“Truly, truly” Jesus says, “this is most certain and should be trusted” that “we speak of what we know, and bear witness to have we have seen”.

The “we” who Jesus refers to in this verse, I believe is likely in reference to Himself, His followers, His disciples, and others who have already experienced the new birth that He speaks of.

Think back to what Jesus said in verse eight of this chapter, “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.”

And so, with these words, Jesus says that the process of the new birth is inexplicable, but though it cannot be explained, the effects that come with the Spirit-induced new birth are undeniable. This is the witness that Jesus speaks of here in verse eleven; it is undeniable yet refuted by those outside the community of the faithful.

It is the witness and testimony also of scripture, in that not only is it intellectually and experientially obvious to each individual who experiences the new birth, but it is also plainly written and proclaimed throughout the Bible that you must be reborn by the Spirit of God to be made right with God.

Furthermore, it is plain both experientially and scripturally that there is no prerequisite to being born again, experience teaches us, and indeed, the Bible also teaches us that there is nothing that the one who is born again had to do before he could be born again. As Jesus said, the Spirit is like the wind, for as the wind blows where it wills, so does the Spirit come upon whoever He wills to come upon.

But this truth that is so obvious not only throughout the pages of scripture, but also in our individual experience, isn’t tangible. Being born again is not something that people do; it’s what God does.And so, this simple, yet inexplicable truth is generally not received, it’s put off as foolishness, as unfair.

So many will say, “Well, if God is the One Who causes someone to be born again, if it’s not something that people themselves do, then God needs to make everyone be born again! Anything other than that just isn’t fair!”… but trust me, we don’t want what’s actually fair!

And so, as we now go to look at the final two verses of our reading, we see how Jesus must have undoubtedly brought Nicodemus into a great state of awe, as He brings Nicodemus to the awareness of just Who it is that he is talking to, when He says:

John 3:12-13 ESV

12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

Here, we really need to remember why Nicodemus had originally come to Jesus in the first place. Remember back in verse two of this chapter that Nicodemus had told Jesus that he and the others who had come to “believe in Jesus’ name” back in chapter 2, verse 23, knew that Jesus was “a Teacher come from God”. And thus, it was there that Nicodemus confessed that He believed that Jesus came from heaven and therefore, taught heavenly truths.

Well, here in verse twelve, Jesus says, “I have told you earthly things”. This is in reference to what He told Nicodemus about the necessity of being born again by the Spirit. He says that this is “earthly” because it is basic and fundamental. It is something which must be initially grasped and accepted.

But even this most basic truth was being balked at, and so, Jesus says, “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?”

Nicodemus claims to come to Jesus for heavenly knowledge, but he won’t even accept earthly knowledge from the only One Who has ever descended from heaven, the only One Who could possibly have knowledge of these things to impart.

You see, this has ever been our problem, this has ever been my problem. God is mysterious, God is high and exalted and holy, and I am not. God’s ways are mysterious and high and exalted and holy, and my ways are not.

And so, when it comes to me, when it comes to you, when it comes to everyone in general, the desire is for the ways of God to be like my ways and your ways. But they’re not like my ways and your ways.

So, we have a choice, we can either accept that God and His ways are mysterious, high, exalted, and holy and say, “I don’t understand everything about it, but these are the ways of God, therefore, I accept and trust and believe God and His ways.”

Or we could do like Nicodemus was initially doing here. We can say, “I have this box, and everything that I can understand and comprehend fits neatly in this box of mine, and so, I am going to attempt to explain away God and His ways so that they too will fit nicely in my little box.”

Well, I hate to tell you this, but when you successfully fit God and His ways in your box, you no longer are dealing with God and His ways, because God does not and cannot fit in your box.

And you know what? Whenever God shows us yet again that He does not fit in our box, when He shows us yet again that He is not what we have sought to explain away, it is then that we come away truly worshipping that same God. A “god” that can fit neatly in my box is not a “god” worthy of worship. And when He shows us yet again that our box cannot contain Him, we worship Him for Who He truly is.

And I believe that this is exactly what happened to Nicodemus. He had a nice, neat box that he thought contained the God of heaven and earth, and he came to Jesus hoping that He would indeed confirm that God was in his box. But Jesus graciously revealed to him that he needed to throw his box away.

And I believe that because of this, Nicodemus went away worshipping.

Beloved, may we embrace the mysterious, may we embrace and worship what we do not understand.

Amen?