Preacher- Stuart Emsley

^17th November 2002

World Wide Study Bible John

John 3-

Jesus meets a religious man

Read John 3v1-21

Right, I’d like to begin by setting the scene for this passage, so I’m going to start off by looking at the background to this conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, as this should hopefully provide us with a good place from which we can really get to grips with their discussion.

Who was Jesus seen to be by people at this stage in his ministry?

Jesus’ meeting with Nicodemus happened quite close to the start of his ministry. So far, we are told in chapter 1 that Jesus had been baptised, and gathered his disciples. In chapter 2 we are told that he changed water into wine at the wedding at Cana, he cleared out the temple because of the fact that it was being used like a market for people to buy offerings they could sacrifice there, and verse 23 goes on to simply say that ‘many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name’. – So clearly he was already having a big impact on the Jewish population at that time.

So, at this point in his life the Pharisees would have viewed him as quite a dangerous man – the reason for this being that Jesus was doing a lot of good works, and people were recognising a difference in the way he taught, compared to the other teachers of the law – and as a result of this they were now starting to believe in him – so he was gaining a following. However, alongside this he was also coming against the way that these teachers of the law lived their lives, and did things – and effectively humiliating them by publicly showing people that what they were doing was, at best hypocritical and against what scripture should be asking of them.

-So these Pharisees who were people that had, as far as the general public were concerned, given their whole lives to God, and to teaching others about him. – They were now getting angry about the fact that Jesus was showing that a lot of what they had built their life on was actually contrary to the will of God.

I think that, over the years, this Nicodemus guy has had some bad press really, - he often tends to be viewed as someone who’s a bit thick, and who is against Jesus in some way. I don’t really think that’s true, but we’ll get to that in a little bit.

Who was this Nicodemus chap then?

Well, firstly he was a Pharisee - a teacher of the law, and a member of the Sanhedrin – the Jewish ruling council. Also, the fact that Jesus in verse 10 calls him ‘Israel’s teacher’ indicates that he probably held an important position on that council.

He chose to visit Jesus at night time, and this indicates that he probably didn’t want anyone to know that he was visiting Jesus. – This could have been because he knew that it would cause problems among his other Pharisee friends who would feel that, by his visit he was effectively recognising Jesus’ ministry (which he does do straight away in verse 2, where he says ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him’). – This is particularly interesting because normally to be called a Rabbi you’d have to go through years of training which Jesus hadn’t done – so clearly Nicodemus recognised the authority with which Jesus taught.

I also feel that, considering that Nicodemus was meant to be Israel’s teacher, he could well have been quite proud of his position, but he was still open to hearing from other people and being taught by them.- So, when he came to Jesus he didn’t start off by trying to intimidate him or try to trip him up on some awkward questions as many other Pharisees did. Instead, he simply recognised Jesus as a teacher from God who was performing miraculous signs.

It’s also nice to see other point in the bible where he pops up. In John Ch7 v45 – 52 Jesus has just been ruffling the feathers of some Pharisees, and it goes on to say ‘Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”

“No-one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards declared.

“You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. “Has any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law – there is a curse on them.”

Nicodemus who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he is doing?”

They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee”

So, it’s clear that, since Nicodemus is said to be ‘One of their own number’ that he became a believer in Jesus – probably as a result of this meeting, and that he was prepared to stick up for Jesus as well.

He also crops up again in Ch 19 v 38 – 40. This is just after Jesus has been crucified, and it says “Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy five pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with the Jewish burial customs.’

-So, here Nicodemus is helping to bury Jesus, and contributing an expensive amount of spices to wrap Jesus’ body in.

Back to the passage

So, we’ve got Jesus, who’s probably having a bit of a rest after healing hundreds of people during the day, and he’s just got this knock on the door from this chap Nicodemus. Nick then starts off by telling Jesus ‘You’re a good guy who’s doing good things’ – ok, that’s paraphrasing it a bit, but you get what I mean.

I think Jesus’ reply here is classic. V3 ‘I tell you the truth, no-one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.’ – He doesn’t mince about with any of this – well, thank you very much Mr Nicodemus, would you like a cup of tea, I think you’re teachings very good as well. – Actually I’ve got some of your tapes upstairs.

No ! He gets straight down to the nitty gritty, and tells him that he’s going to go to Hell unless he gets born again.

So, what is Jesus talking about when he uses this phrase ‘being born again?’ – it’s a phrase that I think that we tend to use quite often when we’re trying to work out whether someone has become a true Christian, and a genuine believer – rather than pew fodder (people who just go to Church because that’s what they’ve always done).

I think there are two essential sides to being born again. On the one hand it’s clearly talking about the fact that, before we come to know God, although we’re living here on the earth we are still essentially dead to God. There is nothing that we can do in our own strength to change this, and as a result of this it is impossible for us to be able to get into heaven. – And the only way that we can become alive to God, and enter into a relationship with him is through being born again – this is the process through which we acknowledge our position before God and that, because of our sinfulness there is nothing that we can do about it. Then we turn to Jesus, and recognise that, through his death on the cross he died for all of our sins; and because of this, he made it possible for us to have all of our sins taken away when we ask for his forgiveness, and so we become alive to God and enter this new relationship with him.

The other side to being born again is that, when you become a Christian it’s just like being a child all over again. All of a sudden this new world has opened up to you. It’s weird because, while on the one hand everything’s still the same on the other hand it’s all completely changed. – It’s not really something that you can explain very easily, it just happens. Now as a result of this all of a sudden you’ve got to re-learn how it is that you need to interact with the world, and start building a new relationship with God who all of a sudden has literally become your Father. It’s all very strange, but wonderful at the same time.

So, if any of you aren’t Christians and you’re intrigued by what I’ve been saying, and feel that you want to enter into this relationship, then come and see me after I’ve finished this talk and we can have a chat – because there really is nothing like being born again.

Now then, we’ve got Jesus then who’s telling Nicodemus about being born again, and he’s finding it a bit of a strange concept to get his head around, so Jesus goes on to explain it all a bit more in verses 5 – 8. He starts off by saying that ‘to enter the kingdom of God you need to be born of water and the Spirit’

- Now there are two possible interpretations to this bit, it could be that Jesus is talking of being born of water and born of the Spirit, in which case the ‘born of water’ part would be talking about our physical birth and would either be referring to the breaking of water that happens when a mother gives birth.

-The other possible interpretation is that the two could be linked together, and the passage could be saying that ‘you need to be born of water and the Spirit’ meaning that you need to be baptised and born of the Spirit and essentially clumping the two together.

Personally I’m inclined to go for the first interpretation, as it’s quite clear that someone has entered the kingdom of God as soon as they have become a Christian, and they don’t have to wait until they’re baptised.

Our friend Nicodemus is still having problems with this though because in v9 he says ‘How can this be?’

At this point I think Jesus is starting to get a bit frustrated at Nicodemus, and says in v10, *hitting forehead in the process* ‘You are Israel’s teacher, and you do not understand these things’

Then he goes on to explain that we talk about things that we know of, and it’s because he isn’t a believer that he can’t understand all of this..

- It’s very interesting to note that, if you look at verse 11 it says ‘I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people have not accepted our testimony’ so Jesus is saying ‘We speak of what we know’ instead of ‘I’ and where he says ‘you people do not accept our testimony’ the you is in fact plural – so this is really a conversation between Jesus speaking on behalf of the believers, and Nicodemus speaking for the Pharisees.

Jesus now goes into the most wonderful explanation of the gospel message to help Nicodemus get to grips with things.

Where Jesus says in v14 & 15 ‘Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life’ he’s referring to a bit in Numbers 21 v 4-9, which is basically about the Israelites who have been out doing their walking in the desert for ages, and they’re moaning to God and Moses about the fact that they’ve got no bread or water and they don’t like the food.

Now God didn’t like their heart attitude in this, so he sent loads of poisonous snakes who promptly started biting them. As a result, the Israelites quickly went back to Moses and repented of it and asked him to pray for them. When he did, God told him to make a bronze snake and put it on the end of a pole and hold it up in the air. Then, anyone who was bitten and looked at the snake lived.

And Jesus was explaining that, in just the same way the as the Israelites sinned that day, so all of mankind has sinned, and, just as the snake was lifted up, so he would be, and just as looking at the snake undid the penalty for the Israelites sinful act, so those who looked to Christ and believe in him would undo the penalty for all of their sin, and so have eternal life.