WE ARE STUDYING THE FOUR GOSPELS MATTHEW, MARK, LUKE AND JOHN TO KNOW THE LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST. TO KNOW HIM IS TO LOVE HIM.
Our Savior had lived on the earth for thirty years and had worked no miracle. There was the hiding of His power. He had been subject unto His parents and had lived in obscurity. Now He has broken through the obscurity and He begins His public ministry in Judea by working a miracle at;
Today we are looking at John 3:1-21
You Must Be Born Again!
We thank William MacDonald (1917-2007) who, for more than forty years, written directly about the key issues of Christianity. Leaving a promising business career as an employed investment analyst with First National Bank of Boston “at the foot of the Cross”, he had travelled worldwide, proclaiming the unsearchable riches of Christ for the Believer’s Bible Commentary.
Jesus Teaches Nicodemus About the New Birth (John 3:1-21)
3:1 The story of Nicodemus contrasts with what had just gone before. Many of the Jews in Jerusalem professed to believe on the Lord, but He knew their faith was not genuine. Nicodemus was an exception. The Lord recognized in him an earnest desire to know the truth. Verse 1 should begin with a connective: “But there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.”
Nicodemus was recognized as a teacher among his people. Perhaps he came to the Lord for instruction, so that he might return to the Jews with this additional learning.
3:2 The Bible does not say why Nicodemus came to Jesus by night. The most obvious explanation is that he would have been embarrassed to be seen going to Jesus, since the Lord had by no means been accepted by the majority of the Jewish people. However, he did come to Jesus. Nicodemus acknowledged the Lord to be a teacher sent by God, since no one could perform such miracles without the direct help of God. In spite of all his learning, Nicodemus did not recognize the Lord as God manifest in the flesh. He was like so many today who say that Jesus was a great man, a wonderful teacher, an outstanding example. All of these statements fall very far short of the full truth. Jesus was and is God.
3:3 At first sight, the answer of the Lord Jesus does not seem to be connected with what Nicodemus had just said. Our Lord is saying, “Nicodemus, you have come to Me for teaching, but what you really need is to be born again. That is where you must begin. You must be born from above. Otherwise, you can never see the kingdom of God.”
The Lord introduced these wonderful words with the expression: “Most assuredly” (literally Amen, amen). These words alert us to the fact that important truth is being given.
As a Jew, Nicodemus had been looking for a Messiah to come and free Israel from the bondage of Rome. The Roman Empire was then in control of the world, and the Jews were subject to its laws and government. Nicodemus longed for the time when the Messiah would set up His kingdom on earth, when the Jewish people would be chief among the nations, and when all their enemies would be destroyed. Now the Lord informed Nicodemus that in order to enter this kingdom, a man must be born again. Just as the first birth is necessary for physical life, so a second birth is necessary for divine life. (The expression born again may also mean “born from above.”) In other words, Christ’s kingdom can only be entered by those whose lives have been changed. Since His reign will be a righteous one, His subjects must be righteous also. He could not reign over people who were going on in their sins.
3:4 Here again we see how difficult it was for men to understand the words of the Lord Jesus. Nicodemus insisted on taking everything literally. He could not understand how a grown-up could be born again. He pondered the physical impossibility of a man entering his mother’s womb again in order to be born.
Nicodemus illustrates that “the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1Co_2:14).
3:5 In further explanation, Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be born of water and the Spirit. Otherwise, he could never enter the kingdom of God.
What did Jesus mean? Many insist that literal water is intended, and that the Lord Jesus spoke of the necessity of baptism for salvation. However, such a teaching is contrary to the rest of the Bible. Throughout the Word of God we read that salvation is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Baptism is intended for those who have already been saved, but not as a means of salvation.
Some suggest that water in this verse refers to the Word of God. In Eph_5:25-26 water is closely associated with the Word of God. Also, in 1Pe_1:23 and Jas_1:18, the new birth is said to take place through the Word of God. It is quite possible, therefore, that water in this verse does refer to the Bible. We know that there can be no salvation apart from the Scriptures. It is the message contained in the Word of God that must be appropriated by the sinner before there can ever be the new birth.
But water may also refer to the Holy Spirit. In Joh_7:38-39 the Lord Jesus spoke of rivers of living water, and we are distinctly told that when He used the word water He was speaking of the Holy Spirit. If water means the Spirit in chapter 7, why can it not have the same meaning in chapter 3?
However, there seems to be a difficulty if this interpretation is accepted. Jesus says, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” If water is taken to mean the Spirit, then it would appear that the Spirit is mentioned twice in this verse. But the word translated “and” could just as correctly have been translated “even.” Thus, the verse would read: Unless one is born of water, even the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. We believe that this is the correct meaning of the verse. Physical birth is not enough. There must also be a spiritual birth if one is to enter the kingdom of God. This spiritual birth is produced by the Holy Spirit of God when a person believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. This interpretation is supported by the fact that the expression “born of the Spirit” is found twice in the verses to follow (vv. 6, 8).
3:6 Even if Nicodemus could in some way have entered his mother’s womb a second time and been born a second time, that would not have corrected the evil nature in him. The expression that which is born of the flesh is flesh means that children born of human parents are born in sin and are hopeless and helpless as far as saving themselves is concerned. On the other hand, that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. A spiritual birth takes place when a person trusts in the Lord Jesus. When a person is born again through the Spirit, he receives a new nature, and is made fit for the kingdom of God.
3:7 Nicodemus was not to marvel at the teachings of the Lord Jesus. He must realize that one must be born again and understand the complete inability of human nature to remedy its own fallen condition. He must realize that in order to be a subject of God’s kingdom, a man must be holy, pure, and spiritual.
3:8 As He so often did, the Lord Jesus used nature to illustrate spiritual truth. He reminded Nicodemus that the wind blows where it wishes, and a person can hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. The new birth is very much like the wind. First of all, it takes place according to the will of God. It is not a power which man holds in his own control. Secondly, the new birth is invisible. You cannot see it taking place, but you can see the results of it in a person’s life. When a man has been saved, a change comes over him. The evil things which he formerly loved, he now hates. The things of God which he formerly despised, these things are now the very things which he loves. Just as no one can fully understand the wind, so the new birth is a miraculous work of the Spirit of God which man is not able to comprehend fully. Moreover, the new birth, like the wind, is unpredictable. It is not possible to state just when and where it will take place.
3:9 Again, Nicodemus illustrated the inability of the natural mind to enter into divine things. Doubtless he was still trying to think of the new birth as a natural or physical event, rather than as a spiritual one. And so he asked the Lord Jesus: “How can these things be?”
3:10 Jesus answered that as the teacher of Israel, Nicodemus should have understood these things. The OT Scriptures clearly taught that when the Messiah came back to the earth to set up His kingdom, He would first judge His enemies and destroy all things that offend. Only those who had confessed and forsaken their sins would enter the kingdom.
3:11 The Lord Jesus then underlined the infallibility of His teaching, and yet man’s unbelief concerning it. From all eternity, He had known the truthfulness of this and had only taught what He knew and had seen. But Nicodemus and most of the Jews of his day refused to believe His testimony.
3:12 What were the earthly things to which the Lord referred in this verse? It was His earthly kingdom. As a student of the OT, Nicodemus knew that one day the Messiah would come and set up a literal kingdom here on earth with Jerusalem as His capital. What Nicodemus failed to understand was that in order to enter this kingdom, there must be a new birth. What then were the heavenly things to which the Lord referred? They are the truths which are explained in the following verses—the wonderful way by which a person receives this new birth.
3:13 Only one person was qualified to speak about heavenly things, since He was the only One who was in heaven. The Lord Jesus was not merely a human teacher sent from God, but He was One who lived with God the Father from all eternity, and came down into the world. When He said that no one has ascended to heaven, He did not mean that OT saints such as Enoch and Elijah had not gone to heaven, but that they had been taken up whereas He ascended to heaven by His own power. Another explanation is that no human being had access to the presence of God continually in the way which He had. He could ascend to God’s dwelling place in a unique way because He had descended out of heaven to this earth. Even as the Lord Jesus stood on earth, speaking with Nicodemus, He said that He was in heaven. How could this be? Here is a statement of the fact that, as God, the Lord was in all places at one and the same time. This is what we mean when we say that He is omnipresent. While some modern translations omit the words who is in heaven, they are widely supported in the manuscripts and belong to the text.
3:14 The Lord Jesus was now about to unfold heavenly truth to Nicodemus. How can the new birth take place? The penalty of man’s sins must be met. People cannot go to heaven in their sins. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent of brass on a pole in the wilderness when all the children of Israel had been bitten by snakes, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. (Read Num_21:4-9.) As they wandered through the wilderness to the promised land, the children of Israel became discouraged and impatient. They complained against the Lord. To punish them, the Lord sent fiery serpents among them, and many people died. When the survivors cried to the Lord in repentance, the Lord told Moses to make a serpent of brass and put it on a pole. The bitten Israelite who looked to the serpent was miraculously healed.
Jesus quoted this OT incident to illustrate how the new birth takes place. Men and women have been bitten by the viper of sin and are condemned to eternal death. The serpent of brass was a type or picture of the Lord Jesus. Brass, in the Bible, speaks of judgment. The Lord Jesus was sinless and should never have been punished, but He took our place and bore the judgment which we deserved. The pole speaks of the cross of Calvary on which the Lord Jesus was lifted up. We are saved by looking to Him in faith.
3:15 The Savior was made sin for us, He who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Whoever believes in the Lord Jesus Christ receives eternal life as a free gift.
Frederick Brotherton Meyer, a contemporary and friend of D. L. Moody and A. C. Dixon, was a Baptist pastor and evangelist in England involved in ministry and inner city mission work on both sides of the Atlantic presents it to us this way;
John 3:1-21
NEW LIFE FROM ABOVE THE NEED OF ALL
A solemn question is suggested by Joh_2:24. Can Jesus trust Himself to us? We must show ourselves worthy of His trust. In Joh_3:1-36; Joh_4:1-54 we have two remarkable instances of the Lord’s intimate knowledge of the human heart.
Apparently Nicodemus had shrunk from identifying himself with John’s baptism. He was one of the richest men in Jerusalem, and our Lord addressed him as the teacher, Joh_2:10, R.V. He was willing to talk about systems of truth and schemes of philosophy; but the Master knew that more, much more, was necessary; there must be the emergence of His soul into the experience of an enlarged and fuller life. The phrase, “the new birth,” the Jews always used for Gentiles, and it greatly startled Nicodemus to learn that there was needed for himself the same change as was required by Gentiles before entering the Jewish commonwealth. In speaking of water, our Lord probably refers to the baptism of John, in which men confessed their sins and expressed their desire to leave the past behind and to enter a fuller experience of the life of God. The new life begotten by the Spirit of God is as mysterious as the wind. That Spirit, bearing the germ of a new life, rejoices to enter each open casement and to fill each vacuum, wherever one will.
Amen!
Please pray the Holy Spirit-The Paraclete will use these sermons and studies to bring many to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
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