Worship call 620

John 3:1 (NASB95) — 1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews;

Nicodemus = conqueror, overcomer

νικάω [nikao /nik·ah·o/] v To prevail, to carry off the victory come off victorious.

This is one from the Sanhedrin who as a group, set their mission on the Killing of Jesus. They were willing accomplices of Satan. Pharisees were not always what they were when we meet them here in the time of Christ. This group which came into being during the time of the Maccabees were a noble lot and Jewish heroes in that war. They were the experts of the Law, but over time position and power caused them to drift away.

Nicodemus was one of them. In Fact He was what Jesus referred to as “The Teacher” which was a very lofty position. So the Sanhedrin did not send out just anyone to check who this Jesus was but the top goes on this mission.

Darkness was an expression to sin and evil to John

1 John 1:5–7 (NASB95) — 5 This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; 7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

Under the cover of darkness Nicodemus came to Jesus.

the fact is it not that we all come to Jesus while we are yet in the Darkness. we were all born in the darkness, and coming to Jesus is coming into the light. It is He that is the light.

Darkness does not only alludes to evil but also to ignorance. While Nicodemus thinks he knows. thinks that he is an expert, and all respects his position and knowledge, Nicodemus does not not realize that he is coming into the class room to expose his own ignorance and being exposed to the true light.

Here is a divine appointment between the unbeliever who may be hostile to Jesus wishing to corner Jesus and bring him down to size and the Light that shines on men.

Point of Application:

1. Jesus does not beat up on Nicodemus because of his ignorance and even hostility.

2. Jesus will handle expertly the Word of the Lord to not defeat his opponent but to win his opponent.

3. The Christian must be a disciple of God’s word and be ready to give an answer for the hope that is found in Him with gentleness.

4. But the Christ follower, the Christ imagers must be prepared for this conversation. for the unbeliever is very equipped to put you in your place.

John 3:2–3 (NASB95) — 2 this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus being a Pharisees and a Jew thinks that he has a free ticket into the Kingdom.

Luke 18:9–14 (NASB95) — 9 And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 “The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 ‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ 13 “But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ 14 “I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Jesus does not answer, Nicodemus according to His folly but opens the door to truth for Nicodemus to be respond to, shedding light upon Nicodemus’ darkness

Unless you are Born again you cannot even perceive the Kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 2:9–11 (NASB95) — 9 but just as it is written, “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him.” 10 For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.

at this point Nicodemus does not have the spirit of God but the spirit of the Anti Christ one that is opposed to the Christ.

No unless you are born from above, you cannot even glimpse over the hill to see the glory of the Lord.

You know throughout biblical history the righteous would not be permitted to look upon God’s wrath

Noah and his family was sealed in the Ark when God’s judgment reigned down.

Lot was told not to look back upon the wrath that God was pouring out on Sodom.

when the dead angel flew over the night of the passover the people were to not look out of their homes.

when Jesus died upon the cross and the wrath of God was being poured out upon his son, it done in the cover of darkness as darkness fell upon Galgatha.

The unrighteous however will never see God’s glory or perceive his glorious kingdom. the best they will ever perceive and love are the things of this world which will be burned up with fire and they themselves will be destroyed with it their souls suffering in a new body only know eternal suffering.

From the notes of Dr. Arnold Fruchenbaum

His response is often misunderstood and in the sermons I’ve heard on this it’s popular among the evangelistic style speakers, they invariably interpret the response to mean that he did not understand what Jesus meant by the term “born again,” it was a brand new term for him, he’d never heard of it before. But if you look at his question, that’s not really his dilemma. He’s not asking how was one born again; his question is how was one born again when he is old. Now if his problem was merely what do you mean by the birth, what difference will age make, how are you born again if you are a child, a young man or an old man, or a teen? He does know something about the term; it was a common used term in Pharisaic writings; what he does not understand is how one can achieve it once he’s reached a certain age in life and status in Jewish society.

And the reason for his lack of understanding is that in Pharisaic Judaism there was six different ways of being born again. All six of the ways are in the realm of the physical, the realm of being born of water only. Of these six ways he did not qualify for two: he did qualify for four.

Gentile converted to Judaism

conversion to Judaism is a process and in the process he would be declared born again. Nicodemus was born a Jew and did not need to undergo that process; he did not qualify for this first kind of new birth.

2. Being crowned King

and a man being crowned king would undergo a rather lengthy coronation service at the end of which he would be declared born again. John nowhere implies that Nicodemus was a member of the house of David apart from Jeconiah, a requirement for Jewish kingship. Even if he happened to be that, at this point of Jewish history the Jews were under Roman domination and there’d be no opportunity of being crowned king anyway. So the second way he did not qualify either.

3. Bar Mitzvah when one turns the age of 13

Bar Mitzvah; that was not the term used in the first century but it became a subsequent term and the term of Bar Mitzvah means a son of the commandment. And first a ceremony that happens when the lad is 13 years old, at that age he takes upon himself the obligations of the Mosaic Law. The common teaching was until that point his parents were responsible for his sins; now he’s responsible for his own sins and by Jewish law he’s legally an adult. Now by Jewish law you cannot have a service of any kind unless you have ten adult males present. And once you had your Bar Mitzvah you’d be counted among the ten adult males necessary for a Jewish service to be conducted. By this point he’s obviously well past the age of 13, he was born again for the first time at that age.

4. Marriage

When a Jewish man underwent a Jewish wedding, under the canopy and various rituals you would be declared born again. Now nowhere in the passage does John come out and say that he was married, yet we know that he was married by going back to verse 1 where John calls him two things: he first of all calls him a Pharisee, but that tells us nothing about his marital state; he could be a Pharisee single, he could be a Pharisee married. Paul was a Pharisee single. But the second thing he calls him is a ruler of the Jews. This was a title given to seventy one members of the Jewish Sanhedrin and among the prerequisite membership in the Sanhedrin was to be a married man. Single men of any age or scholarship would never qualify. So the fact that John calls him a ruler of the Jews meant he was a member of the Sanhedrin, which also meant he was a married man and so he qualified the second way. And Jewish males married back then between the ages of 16 and 20. At that point he was born again for the second time.

5. to be born again is to be ordained a rabbi;

after years of training you would be officially ordained as into the rabbinic. And Nicodemus being both a leading Pharisee and (?) meant he was also an ordained rabbi; rabbis were ordained at the age of 30; at that age he was born again for the third time.

6. become a Rosh Yeshiva,

a title given to those who are a head of rabbinic academies, rabbinic seminaries, where they are responsible to both train and ordain future rabbis. It would not be attained on a level in Jewish society because of the way Jesus addresses him in verse 10, where he says “are you the teacher of Israel;” and the rendering you have here in the Harmony is the correct rendering.

Now if you read the King James Version it doesn’t quite read that way. The King James reads “are you a teacher of Israel.” And for some reason the King James committee chose to ignore the definite article. The New Testament was translated by Gentile committees who did not always understand these small Jewish nuances; they saw no difference in saying “the teacher” and “a teacher,” they missed the point that John was making. Now those who were common rabbis had the title of (?) which means a teacher. But those who were head of the academies were given a title of Rabban which means the teacher. So Gamaliel was always referred to as Rabban Gamaliel, because he was the head of a rabbinic academy, among his students happened to be Apostle Paul. The fact He calls him “the teacher” of Israel, not “a teacher,” means he was the head of a rabbinic academy around Jerusalem, attained about the age of fifty; at that point he was born again for the fourth and also the last time.

Once he underwent these four of six ways available to him within Pharisaism there was no other way to be born again, and that’s why he asked the question the way he did: How is one born again when he is old? What he is saying is hey, I’ve used up all my options. As far as he can see there is no other way to be born again except the way he suggested back in verse 4, to go back into his mother’s womb, to be born physically once more and simply begin the past all over again, being born again at the ages of 13, 20, 30 and 50.

What He’s doing with Nicodemus is a very common Jewish method of teaching when you go from the known to the unknown. The known fact is the expression “born again,” born anew, or born from above. But the unknown element is the spiritual ramifications because in Pharisaism it strictly a physical connotation but not a spiritual connotation.

So He sets the stage in such a way he says in verse 5, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a man be born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” And by saying he has to be born of both water and the Spirit he rejects the Pharisaic fundamental, all Israel automatically enters in the age to come. Merely being born physically, even as a Jew, does not qualify anyone for the Kingdom. One has to be born both physically and spiritually; both born of water and the Spirit to qualify. And until Nicodemus has this kind of new birth, he does not qualify.

The teaching of the teacher continues