I asked my hubster a few days ago what he thought was the most famous verse of the Bible. He unhesitatingly replied, "John 3:16!" For the next few posts, we are going to be looking at one of the most famous passages of the Bible --
John 3:1-22, which contains and surrounds this verse. Let me go ahead and give that to you, as I'll be picking it apart and you'll need to refer to it repeatedly.
Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus(A) who was a member of the Jewish ruling council.(B) 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi,(C) we know(D) that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs(E) you are doing if God were not with him.”(F)
3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.[a]”(G)
4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.(H) 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit[b] gives birth to spirit.(I) 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You[c] must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”[d](J)
9 “How can this be?”(K) Nicodemus asked.
10 “You are Israel’s teacher,”(L) said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know,(M) and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony.(N) 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven(O) except the one who came from heaven(P)—the Son of Man.[e](Q) 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness,(R) so the Son of Man must be lifted up,[f](S) 15 that everyone who believes(T) may have eternal life in him.”[g](U)
16 For God so loved(V) the world that he gave(W) his one and only Son,(X) that whoever believes(Y) in him shall not perish but have eternal life.(Z) 17 For God did not send his Son into the world(AA) to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.(AB) 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned,(AC) but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.(AD) 19 This is the verdict: Light(AE) has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.(AF) 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.(AG) 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
Nicodemus was a member of the local Jewish clergy's ruling council, the Sanhedrin. As Jesus began to preach, teach and work miracles, the Sanhedrin was thrown into a state of quiet upheaval. Some of them began to believe Jesus' words, recognizing Him as fulfilling OT prophecies concerning Messiah. But, they did not dare voice their beliefs publicly, at the risk of losing their cherished, influential positions of power. It has been postulated that the apostle John was from one of these ruling families.
At any rate, Nicodemus came to Jesus at night to speak with Him one-on-one. While it could be that he did this to avoid detection by his peers, it is also possible that he found it impossible to get some one-on-one teaching time with Jesus during the daytime. He did, at least, come.
Nicodemus begins the conversation by stating he knows that the hand of God is upon Jesus, because no one could perform such miracles otherwise. He does not, you notice, confess Him as Messiah.
Jesus, on the other hand, does not address this question directly. He, instead apparently reads Nicodemus's mind by answer an unasked question, which was "how does one get into the kingdom of Heaven?" The answer was that a person first has to be born a human being and then be born of the Holy Spirit.
The Jews believed that all Jewish-born people would inherit the kingdom of Heaven simply because they were "children of" {descendants of} Abraham. Jesus is kicking this to the curb with His many references to "the world" in this passage. ANY human can enter the kingdom of heaven, provided he/she is "born again".
Nicodemus understands the first part, but misunderstands the second. He thinks that Jesus is referring to two physical births and therefore is declaring it impossible for any human being to enter God's kingdom.
In verses 6-8, Jesus clarifies: in order to be born again, the Holy Spirit must do the re-birthing of the soul, and it is the Holy Spirit who moves mysteriously on people to accomplish this, not the peoples' own human efforts. He uses the analogy of the wind to illustrate this point. Perhaps it was a windy night as they talked together. What man can control the wind, after all? The Jewish "theology" had gone so far afield of this key OT principle that Nicodemus was astounded at this teaching. It must have been, in that day, that the priests chose to ignore (or extremely de-emphasize) large portions of OT scriptures, because we see this over and over in the Old Testament.
In verses 10-12 Jesus emphasizes the unwillingness of the ruling council to discount and discredit the earthly miracles they have seen. By refusing to acknowledge those, their minds have been further closed to "heavenly things". Then, in verse 13, he speaks a truth of Heaven: Jesus states that up until that point, no human has entered Heaven except the God-man, Jesus Himself.
Now, some of us may find that puzzling. So, I am going to stop there and pick up there again tomorrow morning. That statement will require a lot of deconstruction and explanation.
Lord Jesus, thank you for taking the time to explain your redemption plan to Nicodemus, and for inspiring John to share it with us so that we may know how to be "born again". In Jesus' name, amen.
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