John Part 7
Notes
Transcript
1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”
3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
8 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.”
Tonight we are going to look at
one of the most important passages in the Bible.
I don’t like to rank the Word of God
Because it is all equally important
But when you have read the entire Bible
and You fully grasp the entire message that God is conveying to humanity
Through His words
We begin to realize that all of it points to 2 things,
which are really just one thing
Knowing Him
And Making Him Known
And these two things are really about one thing
and that is an eternal relationship with God.
All of Scripture is pointing directly or indirectly to that main point
But there are certain passages that lay it out more plainly than others
And John chapter 3 is one of those places
Where it isn’t a prophet talking about some future thing
It isn’t a hint at the main point
It is Jesus spelling it out as plainly as he could do so
before the cross.
It certainly gets even clearer in Acts chapter 2
But without John 3
We wouldn’t really know where Peter got his message from.
At least not without having to piece it all together with other disparate texts.
But here in John 3, Jesus makes it pretty plain.
If you want to go to Heaven… do these things.
Prayer is important, but not if you miss Heaven
Fasting is important, but not without a future in Heaven
everything else takes a slightly lower position when it comes to priorities in the Word of God
The most important thing is to be with Jesus for eternity
1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
So, who is this Nicodemus?
Well, John tells us that he is 6 things.
He is a Jew
He is a Pharisee
And He is a ruler or Judge
We also find out in verse 9, which we haven’t read yet that Nicodemus is a Teach of Israel
And later, we find out that Nicodemus becomes a disciple of Jesus
And by implication we discover that Nicodemus is a witness that Jesus is the Messiah
Remember, that is the main point John is making
That Jesus is the Messiah
And he keeps adding witnesses
And what better witness is there than one of the rulers
We see Nicodemus pop up a couple of times in this story
and it is to show us that he was a witness from very early on
It wasn’t just crazy John the Baptist out in the wilderness
It wasn’t just his Mother Mary
Or his own 12 disciples
but one of the early converts of Jesus was a ruler of the Jews.
So, this late night meeting with Jesus was certainly effective.
I want you to notice that he came privately at night
Almost like a secret meeting
It might seem at first that this was because Nicodemus was afraid of his own people finding out that he was talking to Jesus
And this may well be true
But this was also likely a common thing to do when two teachers wanted to compare notes.
They wouldn’t want to do this comparison in front of their own students
Until they have had time to chew on what the other teacher has said.
Paul actually does this with the other Apostles…
1 Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me.
2 I went up because of a revelation and set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain.
2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”
So, likewise, Nicodemus, out of respect for Jesus
Confronts him at night
But he does not seem to doubt Jesus.
In fact, he says, “we know”
So, it seems not only Nicodemus
But at least some, if not all of his collegues
in the higher ranks of Jewish religiosity
At least to some degree KNEW that Jesus
was a Teacher
and not just any Teacher,
but one that came from God.
How did Nicodemus know?
He said, because of the signs that you do.
Recall in the last chapter that the Jews asked for a sign
When Jesus turned over the tables in the Temple
and ran out the money changers.
Jesus said, the only sign I’ll give you is that if you destroy this temple
I’ll raise it up in 3 days.
However, at the end of chapter 2,
Jesus does many miracles
and the Jews were witnesses to these miracles
Because it says…
23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.
So, just 4 verses later,
Nicodemus says… we saw these signs
and we know you came from God.
2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”
This makes it even more incriminating for the other Jewish leaders
who, like Nicodemus
Saw the signs
and they knew Jesus came from God
But yet, they crucified him anyhow.
It isn’t as if they could claim ignorance
Nicodemus didn’t say, I know, and I saw the signs…
He said “WE” know who you are and what you did.
This is also some indirect evidence against the doctrine of easy belivism
Where religious teachers today will claim
you only need to believe in Jesus
and/or believe in what Jesus did.
But here, we see that other Jewish leaders
Did exactly that
and yet, many of them were directly responsible
for the death of Jesus.
Knowing of Jesus
and knowing of what Jesus did
Is insufficient for salvation
You must have something more
and that something is the very subject of Jesus’ teaching
here to Nicodemus
Jesus heres the confession of Nicodemus
Who says, I know you
I know you came from God
I saw and believe in your signs
…. and Jesus does not say..
Good to go, you are now saved.
No… he says, awesome, glad you made it this far
now take one more step of faith and be born again…
3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Knowing of Jesus isn’t the finish line
Believing in what Jesus did or does isn’t the endgoal
But to see God’s Kingdom
One must be born again.
This doctrine is so important
That Jesus repeats is 3 times.
Look high and low in Scripture
and find a place where God repeats himself twice
and that is surely something important
but very few places does God’s word repeat itself 3 times in succession.
We see it when Jesus tells peter to feed his sheep
We see it when God tells peter 3 times to rise, kill and eat
during a vision that led him to preach to Cornelius
But that is about all I could find.
I see Jesus repeating the phrase “repent or perish” twice in Luke 13.3 and 13.5
But as far as stating something must happen 3 times in a row
which applies to all people
This is the only place
and that is why I said, this passage is so important
We cannot just gloss over it
Jesus says we must be born again in verse 3, verse 5, and verse 7.
and there is a reason for this.
3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
So, what does it mean to be “born again”?
Well, John was hinting at it in his prologue
When he said…
11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
We were born once as children of men
But God has given his believers the right
to become children of God.
And as we will see in a second
To become a child of God
You must be born of the water and the Spirit
And this is corroborated by Paul in Roms 8 and Gal 3-4
and Eph 1, to name a few places.
But the first place we see this connection is in John 3.3
3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
And this is the first time in history it was really stated
This concept of being born again, that is.
And of course, Nicodemus is confused by this.
We can tell he was confused because of his next question.
4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
Recall how I’ve said that there is a recurring theme in John’s Gospel
Where Jesus is talking about something Spiritual
But those who hear him
assume he is talking about something natural
Nicodemus had never heard of any kind of birth outside of a natural birth
So, we cannot fault him for misunderstanding this sentence from Jesus
But this new birth process was foretold in Isaiah 53
And Nicodemus wasn’t making the connection
So, Jesus spelled it out a little more plainly for him in verse 5.
5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
Here we find a little more details about this second birth
We see that it consists of both Water AND Spirit.
Now, I’ll quickly address the very recent idea
that the water referred to the natural birth
and the Spirit referred to the Spiritual second birth.
The argument is as follows
Jesus said that you must be born again.
Nicodemus assumed a second natural birth
Then Jesus said you must be born of water
which was referring to the first natural birth
and Jesus also said you must be born of Spirit
which was referring to the second Spiritual birth
Therefore, Jesus only had Spiritual birth in mind
When he said you must be born again in Jn 3.3.
And the reference to being born of the water
was a reference to the natural birth
And so, Jesus could not have been commanding that we must be baptized in water to enter God’s Kingdom
However, this is an incorrect interpretation for multiple reasons.
I’ll name just a few
First, the idea that the water was not referring to baptism
came from theologians in the 20th century according to D.A. Carson.
You heard me right, the 1900s.
Only a very short time ago.
Prior to that, all theologians understood John 3.5 to mean
Water Baptism and the Gift of the Holy Spirit.
Even Martin Luther tied John 3.5 and Acts 2:38 together.
Luther said in his book “The Large Catechism”…
“For by Baptism we are first born anew…” Martin Luther
Another key evidence is the fulfillment of John 3.5
The apostles tied baptism with the gift of the Holy Spirit
They most likely did this because they understood the word of Jesus
and they also understood the OT prophecies.
Recall the words of Ezekiel that we read last week.
Which foretold of the NT
25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
The internal evidence is the word “and”.
5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
So, on must be born of two things, Water and Spirit.
If water was referring to a natural birth
Jesus wouldn’t have started the sentence with “Truly, Truly”.
This is the word “Amen” repeated twice for emphasis.
It indicates that what Nicodemus just said was incorrect
and what Jesus is about to say is correct.
In other words, you’re wrong Nicodemus
And here is what is right.
Since Nicodemus asked about a natural birth
Jesus would not correct him by also referring to a natural birth.
He would likely said, what you say is halfway correct
instead of Truly Truly, I say to you…
Nicodemus got it wrong when he asked about a natural birth
And Jesus corrected him
It wasn’t until theologians who downplay the command to be baptized
tried to reinterpret this verse to mean anything other than baptism in water and in Spirit.
As we will see in a later lesson,
even if we grant that John 3.5 isn’t talking about baptism
then we still have plenty of evidence supporting the necessity of water baptism.
For example:
16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
16 And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’
20 because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.
21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
So, we have an abundance of Scripture indicating that baptism is essential
And this is only scratching the surface
But, let’s bet back to Jn 3.5
5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
So, in verse 3, Jesus said you can’t SEE the Kingdom
and in verse 5 Jesus said you can’t ENTER the kingdom
Anyone who has not been born again of the Water AND the Spirit
Cannot see the Kingdom of God
And they cannot Enter it.
This is why people struggle to understand
what seems like very basic things in Scripture
They just can’t see it without the Spirit.
Paul says…
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
So, not only can you not enter God’s Kingdom
You can’t even see it if you are not born again.
And being born again involves water and Spirit
And we will see more clearly what means
as John continues here in Chapter 3
and also through his gospel
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
So, being born of the flesh is what Nicodemus was talking about in verse 4
That is the natural birth from our Mother.
But being born of the Spirit involves both water and Spirit.
7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
So, for the 3rd Time.
Jesus says, You must be born again.
Don’t even marvel he says.
This shouldn’t be a surprise at this point
It is the whole reason Jesus came
It is the whole reason we were Give God’s Word
Was so that we could become children of God
through the promise of the New Birth.
And then Jesus says something in vs 8
That on the surface is quite confusing
But that is only because it is lost in translation
And I sometimes wonder if the translators lost is on purpose
Because most translators do not believe what Jesus says here in verse 8.
Not the way Jesus originally said it, anyway
8 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.”
First, the word word “wind” needs to be addressed.
It is the Greek word pneuma
It is used 379 times in the NT
And only 2 times is translated as “wind”
Everywhere else,
Including later in this exact same verse
It is translated as “Spirit”
Except on 3 occasions
Where it is traslated as “breath”
And in those 3 cases,
I think you can read it as “Spirit”
and it will still make sense
So, 374/379 times, Pneuma is translated as Spirit.
What would that change in this verse?
Well, first of all, it would start out talking about the Spirit moving
Not the wind moving.
Because, the “blow” here
Means, to move rapidly LIKE the wind.
So, the Spirit moves rapidly like the wind where it wishes
and you hear its sound
Not the sound of the wind blowing
but the sound of the Spirit moving.
Next, we have to look at the word “Sound”
Many of you know what I’m going to say
but for the sake of new listeners here tonight
or anyone on the podcast listening to this in the future
The word “sound” here is a bit of a misleading translation IMO
The ESV translates this Greek word, PHONE
111/139 times as “Voice”.
Any many other times as cry, roar, language, utterance
Only 9 times do we find this word translated as simply “sound”
in a general sense.
Once here, and 8 other times.
And if we look closely at those 8 other times
what do you think we will find?
44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.
What is the “sound of our greeting”?
It is the sound of Mary’s voice
6 And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.
What “sound” is this referring too?
The exact same sound Jesus was talking about in Jn 3.8
The sound of the SPirit speaking
The ‘utterance”
each was was HEARING THEM SPEAK
That was the sound
it wasn’t just a random click or clang
It was the sound of voices
In all the examples where the translators chose the word “sound”
instead of the word “voice”
We can see that the sound,
was in fact a voice.
So, what was Jesus talking about in Jn 3.8
8 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.”
The random sound of the wind?
Or the voice of the Spirit?
Well, if the former is correct
Then it makes the translators more comfy
But if the latter is correct
Then Jesus was descibing exactly what happened
In Acts 2.4
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
And if Jesus was talking about Acts 2.4 in Jn 3.8
Then that means…
Whatever happened in Acts 2.4
Is required to SEE or ENTER the Kingdom of God
So, there’s huge implications tied to this translation
And maybe now we can see why they chose to translate it as
The sound of the wind
instead of the voice of the Spirit.
8 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.”
If Jesus was talking about the voice of the Spirit
He was then saying
when anyone is born of the Spirit
You will hear voice of the Spirit.
As Pentecostals
We know that is what Jesus was saying
Because we have lived it
But the translators, often have not lived it.
They don’t know what the sound of the Spirit is
But we do.
Thank God we do.
