John Part 8
Notes
Transcript
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.
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
Context
Context
Ok, In the first 8 verses of this chapter
Jesus tells Nicodemus what must be done to be saved.
He tells him 3 times, you must be born again
in verse 3, verse 5, and verse 7.
Jesus then explains that this new birth will be a Spiritual birth
Not a natural birth
And that when a person experiences a Spiritual birth
you will hear the voice of the Spirit moving according to verse 8.
Nicodemus did not have the benefit of hindsight like we do.
He could not open a Bible and flip to Acts chapter 2
and see people being baptized in Jesus’ Name
and filled with the Spirit
and that when they were all filled with the Spirit
You could hear the voice of the Spirit
So, when Jesus foretells all of this to Nicodemus
3 years before it would happen
Nicodemus is confused by it.
And therefore, he asks Jesus:
9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”
How is it possible for someone to be born a second time
And it be a spiritual birth
One that involves both water and Spirit
and how can we hear the voice of the Spirit when this happens?
That’s what he was asking.
And Jesus says…
10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?
Now, the word “the” before the word “teacher” is important.
Some translations leave it out.
Some translations put the word “a” instead of the word “the”
And there’s a difference between being ‘a teacher’
and being ‘the teacher’.
The KJV says…
10 Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
Master can mean teacher in Old English
Think of the word “School Master” for example
So, the KJV says that Nicodemus is just “a teacher”
not “the teacher”
The NKJV says…
10 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?
The CSB says:
10 “Are you a teacher of Israel and don’t know these things?” Jesus replied.
The NIV says:
10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things?
I went through 14 translation in studying this
and it is 10 to 4.
10 Said “the teacher”
4 said “a teacher”
So, which is it?
Well, the Greek manuscript as the word “the”.
And it is pretty standard in Greek to leave that word out of the sentence
if you intended to say “a”.
There is no word for “a” or “an” in Greek
You either say “the” or you don’t say anything
and the “a” or “an” is implied
The original text has the word “the”
So, I think it should say “the teacher”
And it makes Jesus’ words a little heavier
You aren’t just “a teacher” of Israel
you are THE teacher.
This doesn’t mean that Nicodemus is the only teacher of Israel
However, it either implies that Nicodemus is the head of all the other Jewish teachers
or maybe Nicodemus thinks of himself as the best teacher
and Jesus knows that Nicodemus thinks that way of himself
Remember what Nicodemus said about Jesus.
We know that you are “a teacher” come from God.
The article is not there when Nicodemus says it about Jesus
So, Nicodemus is definitely calling Jesus is “one of many teachers” in verse 2.
And Jesus seems to be responded to that comment from verse 2
here in verse 10.
So, Nicodemus calls Jesus, who is God in the flesh “a teacher”
Not knowing how much wisdom Jesus had
and then Jesus calls Nicodemus “THE teacher of Israel”
Knowing exactly how little wisdom that Nicodemus possessed.
I can taste the sarcasm here.
You are “THE” teacher of Isreal,
and I’m just “a teacher”
who’s much younger, likely 10 years younger at least
and yet… you, Nicodemus, you don’t understand these things?
Now, you might wonder, how could Nicodemus understand?
Remember, he can’t flip ahead to Acts chapter 2 like we can
But, he could flip back to Ezekiel 36
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.
If Nicodemus was THE teacher of Israel
Or even if he wasn’t, but thought that he was
Then he should have known this passage
talking about water and Spirit
and a new heart, which is really a new mind
And how God would put His Spirit within us
So we could obey Him
And as THE teacher,
He should have connected this to Jeremiah 31.31
31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah,
Where that prophet connected this to a New Covenant
In which God would forgive all our sins
and make us His people
and put his laws inside us…
33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
And as THE teacher he should have known that all this would occur
when the Messiah arrived
He could gather this easily by reading Ezekiel 37, Jeremiah 33
Or even Isaiah 59.20-21
20 “And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the Lord.
21 “And as for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord: “My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children’s offspring,” says the Lord, “from this time forth and forevermore.”
So, we can easily see that long before Acts 2
God had promised to put His Spirit in us
You write his law on our hearts
and put his words in our mouths
The wash us clean
Forgive our sins
and this would all come when the Messiah arrived
and established the New Covenant
And yet, despite all this…
Nicodemus is confused when Jesus says
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.
and when Jesus says…
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.”
So, we are going to hear the voice of the Spirit
whenever someone is born of the Spirit
just like Isaiah said…
He would put his Spirit upon us
and put His words in our mouth.
And Nicodemus is confused.
So, Jesus asks
10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?
Now, recall what else Nicodemus said after he called Jesus “A” teacher…
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.”
He said “WE KNOW”
Then Jesus says…
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.
So, Nicodemus indicates that he knows something about Jesus.
and Jesus doesn’t really respond to that until verse 10 and 11…
In vs 2 Nicodemus says Jesus is A teacher
in verse 10, Jesus called him THE Teacher
In vs 2 Nicodemus says “WE Know”
And in verse 11, Jesus says “WE Know”
and implying that Nicodemus doesn’t really know anything
And in vs 2, Nicodemus says he has seen the signs and miracles that Jesus did
and in verse 11 Jesus says we bear witness of what we have seen.
So, Jesus is really saying to Nicodemus, IMO
You think you are THE Teacher
You think you KNOW things
You think you have SEEN Things
But you are not a teacher
you don’t really know anything
and you haven’t seen anything yet
And the reason is because Nicodemus
did not receive Jesus’s testimony.
Now, Jesus is speaking of a “we” here.
And I think the “we” is just a response to the “we”
In verse 2.
Nicodemus says “We Know…”
And it seems to indicate Nicodemus and the other Pharisees
So, when Jesus says “we”
He is probably either talking about his disciples
or about John the Baptist
because they didn’t accept John’s testimony in chapter 1 either.
Up to this point, Jesus has been using this earthly metaphor of birth
and Nicodemus isn’t getting the metaphor
So, Jesus says…
12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
If you don’t understand the metaphor
Then Jesus says, you can’t possibly understand the real thing
Which is that your entire life is going to change
When God puts His Spirit in you
And makes you into a new creature
that is not of this earth.
Born Again
Born Again
And, this is a good place you mention that being born again
means you are changing to something new.
There are many people who think that being born again
doesn’t require water
doesn’t require the voice of the Spirit
and it just requires you to believe that something is true
without actually changing at all
But that isn’t what happens in a natural birth
and that can’t be what happens in a Spiritual birth either
Being born creates a new life
and being born again creates a new life too
So, a change has to ocurr
or a birth hasn’t happened
A new life has to begin
or a birth hasn’t happened
Just believing that Jesus existed
Doesn’t create a new life
Just believing that Jesus died and rose again
Doesn’t create change
The change happens when God washes you clean
and He puts His Spirit in you
And gives you a new heart
and puts his laws in your heart
This is the new life that the prophets spoke about
If that doesn’t happen, you haven’t been born again.
You cannot act like someone who has never been born of water and Spirit
And claim that you are born again
You can’t say the same things as them
and claim to be born again
If change doesn’t happen
Then a birth didn’t occur.
Nicodemus didn’t understand the natural metaphor of birth
and didn’t connect what Jesus was saying
back to the OT prophecies we read
and there are many more than the 3 I read
And Nicodemus should have known them all
So, Jesus says, don’t understand,
and you surely can’t understand real heavenly things.
Then he says…
13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
Here Jesus is insinuating that someone is capable of understanding heavenly things
And that someone is one who has descended from heaven
Which is of course, himself.
Then Jesus prophesies of his death…
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
When Moses lifted up the brazed serpent in the wilderness
everyone who looked at it was saved
And Jesus is talking about himself also being lifted us
This points to how he would die
and simultaneously to how he would be exalted
And “lifted up” to heaven.
Which he just said, the only one that can go up to heaven
is one who first came down from heaven
So, Jesus is saying, I’m about to be lifted back up to where I came from.
15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
And then Jesus says, whoever believes will be live forever
In other words,
He is making a way for those of us who did not first come down from heaven
to then be able to go up there with Jesus
and live forever.
And the way is through our belief in Jesus.
Now, many people read verse 15 through 18
and claim that all you need to do us believe in Jesus.
And when they say this
They often mean
Belief in who He is
Or in what He did
But they seldom mean
Believe in what He said to do
Because that would entail that I need to change
And the context of verse 15
is that we do need to change
We need to be born again Spiritually
And so, it cannot be that we just put a thought in our minds
and believe that thought to be a matter of fact.
And then believing that thought to be a matter of fact
ensures my free and clear entrance into eternal life
Because Jesus just said…
In this very same conversation
to this very same man Nicodemus
7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
So, believing a thought about Jesus to be a matter of fact
Is not being born of water
and it is not being born of the Spirit
So, there must be more than just believing a thought about Jesus to be true
or this conversation would not make sense
We must be careful not to skip John 3.3-8
and rush to John 3.15-17
True belief in Jesus
means more than believing he existed
Many Atheists have believed he existed.
True belief in Jesus
means more than believing he did certain things
like died, was buried, and was resurrected
Mormons believe those things to be true
True belief in Jesus is to follow Him, trust Him, and obey Him.
A liberal can say I believe Trump exists
and that does not mean the same things as when a conservative says
I believe in Trump.
A conservative can say I believe Kamala Harris ran for president
And a liberal can say, I believe in Kamala Harris
and that means something totally different.
If you say, I believe in America
You don’t mean that you believe America is a real place
You don’t meant that you believe America won a war
You mean that you are WITH America
You are BEHIND America
You are FOLLOWING America
You would FIGHT for America
You would NEVER leave America
You would NEVER go against America
So, when you BELIVE in Jesus
You need to do more than just believe Jesus is a real person
You need to do more than just believe Jesus did things
You need to be WITH Jesus
BEHIND Jesus
FOLLOWING JESUS
OBEYING Jesus
NEVER Leave Him
NEVER go against Him.
Amen.
So, if Jesus say I must be born again
and I say that I believe in Jesus
Then I will be born again.
of water
and of Spirit.
And it is that kind of belief that is promised eternal life in verse 15 and 16.
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
This is probably the most well known Scripture in the world
It is the Gospel in a sentence
It is on many a bumper stickers
We all know it well
The reason for His sacrifice is given first
God SO loved the world.
This doesn’t mean he loved the grass and trees
It is talking about the people in the world
And it cannot be talking only about saved people
because no one was truly able to be saved
until Jesus died
So, God loved all people
Even while we were YET sinners
And that love for us
even in an state of being dead in sin
of being not born again
God Loved us BEFORE He died for us.
and BEFORE he made a way for us to have eternal life.
I think that is something that is important for us to realize
God didn’t die for us because we were perfect
Or because we were already worthy
WE were sinners
In need of a Saviour
And God saw our need
and Loved us
And sacrificed His only begotten Son.
So, that those who believe in Him
won’t perish.
It says, “should not perish” in most translations
But the word “should” is added by the translators
It literally says, perish not.
If you believe in Jesus, you won’t perish.
You WILL not perish.
The word “Should” can carry the implication
That there is a chance you could still perish
But the original text doesn’t have that implication
It says that if you believe in Jesus
Then you will perish not.
Now, does that mean I believe in once-saved-always saved
No.
Because, it is possible to believe one day
and not believe the next day
As long as you understand what true belief is.
Which, I’ve already stressed, is more than accepting a fact is true.
But, as long as you truly believe in Jesus
You will not perish.
You can’t.
Now, let me skip ahead to chapter 7,
Just to show you what I mean about True Believers
37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ”
39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
So, you see here.
A true believer will be born again of the water and the Spirit
And if someone is a true believer
John 3.16 says…
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
This verse is important to Nicodemus
Because, he likely thought the Messiah was going to come and condemn the world
If you read the Prophecies the way some people read John chapter 3
You can miss all the parts about the water and the Spirit
and about how the servant would suffer
and be our Redeemer and our Saviour
and you can just read the parts about how he would come and conquer his enemies.
And Nicodemus, as well as the other Pharisees
Were looking for that kind of Messiah
And Jesus says…
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
The Son came first to save
not to codemn.
In fact, when he comes the second time
He isn’t going to condemn then either…
why?
Well vs 18 says…
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
So, the default state of all men is condemnation.
You start out condemned
and you must be changed
And that change occurs during the New Birth
You are born the first time into sin and death
and you are born the second time into the Spirit and life.
Amen, aren’t you glad you’ve been born again?
