John 3: 1-21
There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
This man was one of the high-ranking VIPs in the Jewish system of religious government.
The same came to Jesus by night,
He would not come in the daylight, because he didn't want it known that he had sought Him out, to take Him seriously. Nicodemus was sneaking out to see Him.
and said to Him, Rabbi,
This is a title of respect, given to teachers of the Scriptures.
We know that You are a Teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that You do except God be with him.
Now Nicodemus is professing faith in Jesus, and seeking Truth.
Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you [He's teaching here], Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.
Here Jesus is teaching him a basic Truth.
Nicodemus said to Him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?
Nicodemus took Jesus literally, in an earthy way.
Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you [He's teaching again], Except a man be born of water [material] and of the Spirit [spiritual], he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God [also spiritual and material].
God is Spirit, and Life is spirit, so God's Kingdom is spiritual; and when it comes here to be actualized on the Earth, it will also be material.
So Jesus explains this to Nicodemus:
That which is born of the flesh is flesh [the water breaks and the child is born], and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit [the Holy Spirit comes into our human spirit and makes it alive].
Marvel not that I said to you that you must be born again [Don't be surprised at this].
The wind blows where it lists, and you hear the sound of it but you cannot discern where it comes from or where it goes; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.
Jesus is telling Nicodemus that just as you can't see the wind, but you can feel it and see what it does; that's how the Spirit works in our spirit, you don't see the spiritual with your carnal eyes, but you do see its affects, what He does through us.
Nicodemus answered and said to Him, How can these things be?
He's asking Him how all this works out, similar to when Mary asked Gabriel how she was going to conceive without a man. Not doubting the Truth of it, but asking about the mechanics of it, how it works out.
Jesus answered and said to him, Are you a master in Israel, and you don't know these things?
Jesus is chiding him, as Nicodemus has studied the Scriptures all his life and is considered an expert, but he hasn't grasped this basic Truth that undergirds all the rest. You have to have spiritual life to communicate with God Who is Spirit.
Truly, truly, I say to you [Teaching again], We speak what we know, and we testify to what we have eyewitnessed; and you have not received our witness.
The Jewish leadership was not open to hearing His Truth; they were expecting something else, and afraid of the Romans who had conquered them.
If I have told you earthly things, and you believe not, how can you believe if I tell you about Heavenly things?
We must choose to believe the foundational things, then we will be able to build on them and trust the higher concepts. The material comes first, then the spiritual (I Corinthians 15:45-46).
And no man has ascended up to Heaven but He who has come down from Heaven, even the Son of Man who is in Heaven.
Jesus is talking about Himself here, He is the Son who was given, by being born as a human child (Isaiah 9:6, the [new] child is born, but the Son [from Eternity past] is given).
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up:
That whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
Jesus is referring to when poisonous serpents were biting the people, and God had Moses make a serpent of brass and set it up high on a pole, and whoever had been bitten by a snake, if he looked up at that brass serpent & believed that God would work through it for healing, then he lived (Numbers 21:8-9).
Jesus will also be lifted up on a pole, the Cross, as the Lamb of God, dying in our place to rescue us from death.
For God so loved the World, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Here's the verse that is memorized by every Christian child. This is Jesus' purpose for coming to Earth. His whole reason. He doesn't want us to perish, but to live with Him where He lives, forever. That's why He came.
For God did not send His Son into the World to condemn the World: but that the World through Him might be saved.
Jesus' Blood has unlimited value, its worth is more than enough to pay for the sinfulness of every person who ever lived. His invitation is open to every living creature, in every Nation, every language; to every sinner who faces the truth of his own sinfulness and turns to Him for cleansing.
He didn't say that the World will be saved, but that it might be saved. He won't force Himself on anyone. We each must choose to accept His authority over us, and admit our culpability. Then His Blood will wash us white as snow (Isaiah 1:18), fit to live with Him in His perfect Heaven.
He that believes in Him is not condemned: but he that does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the Name of the only-begotten Son of God.
He says they are condemned already, we are all born in sin, the sin-nature that we inherit as humans from Adam. So we're all born deserving death.
And this is the condemnation, that Light has come into the World, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
For everyone who does evil hates the Light, neither comes to the Light, lest his deeds should be discovered.
They want to hide what they're doing because they know it's not right, and they want to avoid punishment or any consequences.
But he that does Truth comes to the Light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
The one who lives with integrity is not hiding, and is willing for others to know what he is doing, because it's all right and beneficial. It's what God planned for us to accomplish to promote His Kingdom by doing what is right.
Nicodemus did believe Jesus, and he spoke up for Him to the other Pharisees in John 7:50-51, when they wanted to arrest Him. And when Joseph of Arimathea claimed Jesus' body when He was dead, Nicodemus was with him with spices to wrap His body with in the linen sheets for burial (John 19:38-42).
O my Father, You had John write about this Pharisee, Nicodemus, so that we could also hear what Jesus was teaching him.
Thank You, Father, for loving us so much, to send Your very best for us.
Father, I pray for all those who are seeking You, that they would find You. And I pray for Your children, that they all might acquire the skill in testifying of what You are doing in and for each one of us. That we would use the right words to convey Your Truth with understanding, and be able to discern the times we are living in.
Father, I know it won't be long before all the End-Time events will be upon us, with all the chaos and confusion that it will bring, and then the Glorious Appearing of our majestic King!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
