007 - What?

You pick up your Bible and wonder, is there more here than meets the eye?

Is there something here for me? I mean, it's just words printed on paper, right? Well, it may look like just print on a page, but it's more than ink!

Join us for the next half hour as we explore God's Word together, as we learn how to explore it on our own, as we ask God to meet us there in its pages. Welcome to More Than Ink. So you had a baby. What would you say if the nurse said, now that it's out, let's push it back in and push it out? Oh, never. I would say no.

I would run screaming. I had four babies and there's no point in that anyway. It has no point. But today in John 3, the guy that Jesus is talking to asks that very question. He does.

So let's find out why he did. He must be born again today on More Than Ink. Welcome back to More Than Ink. I'm Jim. Good morning. I'm Dorothy. And we are excited that you're back with us as we're taking a walk through John and we're actually just doing an exploration as we go.

We are. I hope you read John 3 this last week so you could compare your notes with our notes and our questions with your questions and we can see what we get to. I imagine that as you read it this week you might have recognized this chapter. You should have recognized a few things. Yeah. This contains probably some of the most famous verses out of the entire New Testament. Most quoted, the ones that are most referenced in the end zones in NFL football games. John 3, 16. You see people waving those big placards.

Right. Most people just don't know what the context of it is. But you do now if you read John 3. So we are going to read this beginning section of Nicodemus in John 3 and then kind of wind it back and talk about it some and just see exactly what's there. So as we come into John 3 we come in with this guy Nicodemus who's a very highly placed guy. Before we start reading it I just realized we need to kind of remind people of the context because what Jesus had just done in Jerusalem was march into the temple and cast out those the money changers and the people who were cheating people to make sure that they had their appropriate offering. And he said, you know, destroy this temple and I'll raise it up in three days. They said, who gives you the authority to do what you're doing? And that's what he said. And John says, you know, you've made my father's house, which should be a house of prayer, you've made it a den of iniquity.

You've made it a place of cheating people and setting up obstacles for people. So he had just done that, which is what probably precipitated Nicodemus's visit. So we probably need to know that. We don't know if Nicodemus actually saw that happen, but it's highly likely. Well, if he hadn't seen it, he heard about it, certainly because he was a Pharisee. They would have been talking about it.

He's just probably curious who this guy is. And since Jesus did cause a ruckus Nicodemus decides it's probably wiser to do this under the cloak of dark rather than being openly associated with this guy who just turned everything upside down downtown the day before or something. Well, it just occurred to me recently that when it says Nicodemus came to him by night, very likely it was because they were camping outside Jerusalem. And so Jesus wasn't just sitting out there in the dark by a campfire by himself. The guys were with him. So John and the others probably witnessed this conversation, even though John doesn't tell us exactly that they were there. But it's very likely because they would have made camp and Nicodemus would have come sneaking out in the dark so he wouldn't be seen by anybody who would suspect him. I tend to speculate that it was private though. You think?

Why do you think that? Well, because he takes him to task pretty in your face, which would have been embarrassing. And would Jesus do that in front of the apostles? I don't know. We don't know. Well, it does seem to me that Jesus did not step back from embarrassing people by asking difficult questions. But this was early in the ministry. So Jesus is trying to keep his head down. Okay, so we don't know any of that for sure.

But we are using our imaginations to consider what it might have been like. Why don't we just read it and let's just see what it is. So I'm reading out of the English Standard Version.

Okay. And chapter three, verse one. Now there's a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus, who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. And he came to Jesus at night and said, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God.

For no one could perform the signs you're doing if God were not with him. And Jesus replied, Well, very truly, I'll tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they're born again. 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? Jesus answered, Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying you must be born again. The wind blows wherever it pleases you hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it's going.

So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. Well, how can this be? Nicodemus asked. I like it very openly. Honest questions.

He just can't figure it out. What? If it was now he'd say what? Okay. Verse 10. So you are Israel's teacher, said Jesus. And do you not understand these things? Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen. But you still, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I've spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe.

How then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven, the son of man. And just as Moses lifted up the snake in the debt in the wilderness, so the son of man must be lifted up that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only son.

This is the verdict. Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may seem plainly that what they've done has been done in the sight of God. And we're going to stop there.

What did you hear? In this clandestine secret meeting between this powerful man from the Jewish ruling council and Jesus himself. In fact, one of my best questions is when I put myself in Nicodemus' shoes, I ask myself, what is he really asking? Because his questions seem to be kind of vague. Well, he doesn't even ask a question at first, does he? He just says, we really do know that nobody can do what you're doing unless he has the authority of God. He doesn't really ask him a question.

He just opens the conversation. Right. And all he says is, you're from God. Right. He says, we really sort of do know that you're probably from God. So?

So? I don't even think he knows what to ask to tell you the truth. My next question if I was in Nicodemus was, so what's your plan, man?

And where are you going and what's laid out for me? But he doesn't even do that. He just says, you're from God.

Make it. Right. So, yeah. And then Jesus throws him a whammy.

Well, yes, because where on earth does this statement come from? Truly I say to you, unless one's born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Well, the Jews were all about the kingdom and getting the kingdom back and bringing in the kingdom, right? They were especially looking for a Messiah who would be a strong political leader and return them to their political glory that they knew under the kingship of David. Well, and then the Jews, they themselves, especially a guy like Nicodemus, presumed that because of their lineage, their bloodline, they were in. That's right.

They were in the kingdom. And here Jesus says, well, no, you got to be born again. Right.

You got to do what? You know, when we hear the word born, we immediately of course think of a baby being born, but what's really happening when something is born, a being enters a new life. Right.

Right. Separates from its mother and begins to do life differently than it knew life before. There's some way in which you got to start over. Start over. A newborn baby has no resources, has no ability to do anything for itself. Being born is helpless.

Yeah. And you know, for someone who's lived a relatively inconsequential life, like where I was when I was seven years old or something, you know, if you say you got to start over, you kind of shrug your shoulders and say, well, okay, I can start over. But for someone who's accomplished like Nicodemus, you know, a member of the Jewish ruling council, this guy has worked his way up into a very high position. He's got a lot to lose if you say, go back to the beginning and start over.

So I'm sure when he hears this, he's thinking, well, I'm accomplished. What do you mean I have to start over? Yeah. What does it mean to be born again?

Yeah. What's that all about? So in one, in just one sentence, Jesus has, has hooked to this guy because his presumption of the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God and his participation, and it just got wrecked because he says, you got to do this born again thing. So what is that all about? So he asks a very obvious question. How can someone be born when they're old?

That's a good question. Right. And Jesus' answer is, well, we're not talking just about this, this silly thought of going back in your mother's womb and coming out again. We're talking about a spiritual rebirth.

He says that which is born of the water, or the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. So he says, this is a, this is a spiritual rebirth. Right. So in a way, it's not starting over from where you're at. It's starting over in a new place, you know, and perhaps in an invisible way, doesn't have anything to do with your body, it has to do with your spirit.

Right. So could he be saying, Nicodemus is saying to himself, could this guy be saying that what I've accomplished in my human life is irrelevant to what I need to accomplish in my spiritual life? And since I haven't gotten there, I need to start over in that spiritual life. So it's like a, almost like a parallel track in a way. And you know, with many of the discussions with the Jews that Paul had as well, and then was also in the Old Testament, God tried to keep telling them, okay, we can talk about your physical accomplishments, we can talk about you not eating food and stuff like that. We can talk about circumcision. But when we get down to it, we need to talk about the circumcision of the heart, the inside parts.

So there actually is a second track of where you need to be has nothing to do with the physical outside has to do completely with your insides. And I think that's what Jesus is hinting back to Nicodemus right here is, hey, man, there's a whole part of you that's completely been neglected. And you have to start it. And you haven't started.

He's doing more than hinting. He's saying you are not even going to see the kingdom, you are not going to perceive it, you're not going to understand what the kingdom consists of. You don't yet have any sensory perception of the kingdom being a spiritual kingdom, not an earthly kingdom.

Right. Really resetting it. He is resetting Nicodemus's thoughts completely. And you know, John places this conversation way close to the book because he had included this idea of becoming being born again back in his introduction when he says back in chapter one, as many as received him, right? Those ones, he gave the right to become the children of God to be essentially to be born again, those who believe in his name who are born, not of the blood nor of the will of the flesh nor the will of man, but born of God. So here's John giving us an actual conversation where Jesus says that very thing.

This is a direct follow up with this rebirth kind of thing. So it's so disorienting to Nicodemus. I mean, I feel for the guy. I mean, I really feel for the guy because I think what he's asking in his head as a good Jew is, well just tell me what I need to accomplish, what I need to do and not do. And Jesus isn't giving him that.

He's giving him less than that. In fact, he gives him this sort of, how do you want to put it, kind of a destabilizing comment about the wind. So basically, you know, how do you get born again? Well, he says, the wind blows wherever it wants to. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what that's about.

You hear it sound, don't know where it comes from. So is everyone born of the Spirit. And so his question to himself, Nicodemus is, so what do I do? Wait for the wind to blow? Well, you know, you can't see the wind, you just see the effects of it. Isn't that perhaps the picture that Jesus is painting?

That's what he's trying to paint. But think about how it puts Nicodemus in this totally powerless position. Right. So I'm just supposed to wait until this invisible, unseen wind blows on me? Until the wind blows.

Is that what you're just talking about? I mean, how am I supposed to be born of the Spirit? And Jesus says, well, you know, it blows what's going to blow. Indeed, Nicodemus then says, well, how can that be?

I'm adrift here. Yeah, he's really lost at this point when you get to verse 9. It's a fascinating conversation and I think we can learn a lot from just watching how Jesus engages in conversation with people who come to him. He asks them questions, he listens to their answer, and then he very often gives them a question back or responds with something that it's not an answer that they can just say, okay, I'm good, that's good.

But it pulls them on into a deeper understanding. Yeah, even when he just says, hey, you interested in the Kingdom of God? Yeah. Oh, you gotta be born again. What?

How does that happen? And by the way, at this point in the Gospel, that's a completely new term. That's a new idea.

I mean, this has not been introduced. Although in chapter 1, he sort of hints at the fact that we're coming from a different origin when we talk about spiritual, but still. Although, there had been, John the Baptist had been baptizing and at that point, the significance of being baptized was going to be washed away and saying, I'm ready to begin life a different way. I'm ready to live a life of repentance.

And so, starting over. So that idea was out there, but suddenly Jesus frames it in this very human way. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Well, now, and you know, as we admire how Jesus engages with him and Nicodemus just comes up with, well, how can this be?

I'm lost here, man. This is a very compassionate thing Jesus does next. He knows that this guy knows the Old Testament, right? He knows the Old Testament. And to be frank, he should know more about what Jesus is talking about, but he doesn't. So Jesus leads him back to the Old Testament and gives him an example. So why don't you tell us what he takes him back to and why. Yeah, well, Jesus said, now you ought to know this.

Just like Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Well, for us, we're like, what? But here's where the study skill that we want to talk about today comes in. And that is checking out your cross references. Because if you have a Bible with cross references or references in the column or down the center, there will be at this point somewhere close to John verse 14, a reference to Numbers 21, 9.

And we're just going to turn there and I'll just read it for you quickly. Because this takes place while the Israelites were in the wilderness, but it's in Numbers, so it's a lesser read book. But the Jews were familiar with this. So this is centuries and centuries before Jesus.

Yeah, a couple thousand years. So the people were, once again, as always, grumbling and unhappy. And the people spoke again to God and Moses, why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there's no food and no water and we loathe this miserable food. And by the way, the miserable food that we're talking about was the manna that God was providing every day.

It's like a multi-meal. So here's the part that Jesus is referring to, and the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people so that many of the people of Israel died. So the people came to Moses and said, we've sinned because we've spoken against the Lord and you.

Intercede with the Lord that he may remove the serpents from us. And Moses interceded for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, make a fiery serpent and set it on a standard and it shall come about that everyone who's bitten when he looks at it shall live. And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard and it came about that if a serpent bit any man when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived. Now that's the story that Jesus is talking about when he says to Nicodemus, just like Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. You've got to think Nicodemus was, his brain was spinning, tight little fast little wheels going ah, ah, ah. Wait, what happened there?

What happened to the wind part? The serpents didn't stop biting, but when the people looked to that bronze serpent on the pole, they were healed of the poisonous effect of the death that would have ensued from the serpent bite. Oh, is there theology here? Now that was a real story that happened to the Israelites in the wilderness. But Jesus says, it all pointed to me, just like that. I will be lifted up and anyone who looks to me believing that my death represents theirs will not die from the effect of their sin.

That's what he's saying. And he's expecting Nicodemus to understand that because then he goes on and says, and whoever believes in him may have eternal life. This is verse 16 now, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. And this is all in answer to the end of verse 8, so it is everyone who's born of the Spirit and Nicodemus doesn't know, so how do I get born of the Spirit? He's telling me one long extended thing here, how did they get saved in the desert from the snakes and the serpents? How did all that kind of stuff happen?

You had to lift up that bronze serpent? I don't really think Nicodemus even caught this. I mean, this is a ton of connections back in the Old Testament. Jesus is assuming that he will. Yeah, I know, but he's painting the bigger picture about how you get born of the Spirit. It has to do with looking on the source of your salvation, which is Jesus. And believing.

And believing. And of course, we didn't mention it, but when we say the Son of Man must be lifted up, he's talking about being lifted up on the cross. He is. And then metaphorically for us to look on him and believe that in looking on him, we find salvation just like they did in the desert. Right.

Yeah. And we know that Jesus was looking at the crucifixion when he said lifted up, because he says that John will develop this for us later in his gospel, and it will come back a number of times. Jesus will say, when the Son of Man is lifted up, certain things will happen. You'll understand certain things, you'll see certain things. So we'll see John developing this idea that Jesus said in later chapters.

Yeah. And at the end of this section, we read, Jesus introduces also a very troubling statement about condemnation, because up to now, it's all been about salvation. We get all that.

That's all highly beneficial. But he says, for those who don't believe, condemnation is coming their way. In 18, whoever believes is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned because they haven't believed in the name of God's one and only Son. So it's not just an option of saying, well, do I believe in who Jesus is? There's consequences to not believing who he is.

Yes. And so he introduces this. I think it's the first time this has come up in the narrative that there's two paths in front of us, and one of them will lead to condemnation, and it has entirely to do with who we think Jesus is. And if we don't believe who he's saying he is, we're condemned. And that's really a sobering kind of statement right here in the middle of such good news of being saved. And those are the words of Jesus.

He says, if you don't believe who I am, you are condemned already. Yeah, exactly. So this isn't just a nice benefit. This is a two-edged sword in many respects. And Jesus says it has nothing to do with how you're accomplishing the law or whether you're eating pork or not.

It has nothing to do with that. It has everything to do with who do you say that I am. And this is the first time, and this will be emphasized all through the whole book. But remember, John's purpose in writing the book is to convince us of who Jesus is. And that's going to become more and more unfolded as the chapters go on.

By the time we get to chapter five and six, the conversations Jesus is having with people are very confrontational, very pointed. And it's about who He is. It's about who He is. It's all about His identity.

Yeah. And so this is very early in the biography of Jesus that John's trying to tell us, look, this is my purpose, that you'll know who this guy is. And this is important because if you get this wrong, you stand condemned.

If you get it right, then you are a child of God and you're in the kingdom of God. So he completely repaints the picture from Nicodemus' perspective about what it takes to be a partaker in the kingdom of God. I mean, it's just totally different than he was ever, ever thinking. In fact, if you get to the end of this chapter, I mean, outside the Nicodemus passage, that's how John even closes the whole chapter. Right. Right. And it's after a John the Baptist discussion. And so John, many people think that John himself added verses 31 to 36, not as the narrative, but his own commentary take on what you're reading right now.

Right. Let me read those because they're so good. Just from, I'm going to pick it up at about verse 33. He who has received his witness, that's John the Baptist's witness, he who has received this witness has set a seal to this, that God is true. So John the Baptist is saying, the one who sent me is true.

I'm the forerunner. For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he gives the spirit without measure, like freely, generously. The father loves the son and has given all things into his hand. He who believes in the son has eternal life. But he who does not obey the son or believe the son shall not see life, won't even perceive life. But the wrath of God abides on him. The wrath of God abides on him, depending only on who you say Jesus is.

And do you believe his own claims about himself? It has everything to do with this living word of God becoming flesh to fully reveal the grace and truth of who God is, to make God known to us. And if you say no to that, then there is no other option for life. That's the message of the gospel. That's right. So when John opened it, we know that in the beginning was the word, and the word becomes flesh and all that kind of stuff, then you say, well, okay, I'll believe.

It sounds like a good idea. But he's saying, it's not just a good idea. It's everything because you either stand condemned if you reject Jesus as the word made flesh, or you're in the kingdom if you accept who he is. And the only issue is belief.

Isn't that amazing? Believing in who he is. Not just believing that he was born and he walked and you met him and talked to him. Just a historical guy, but that he actually was. Believing that he is God in the flesh, fully revealing. The word made flesh.

Fully revealing God, making him understandable to us. Let's just look quickly at what Peter says, because Jesus is not the only one who said, you must be born again. Peter uses this phrase twice in his first letter, and I'll just read you it. The first time was in chapter one. He says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

There it is. He has caused us to be born again. From death to life, God has caused us to be born again.

And then he uses this phrase again toward the close of his first chapter. In verse 23 he says, for you have been born again, not of seed which is perishable, but is imperishable. That is, through the living and abiding word of God. Oh, we are born again through the living and abiding word of God. And the living word of God was Jesus, God in the flesh, became flesh and dwelled among us. Right?

Begin to put those things together. It is the living word of God in the person of the Son of God who causes us to be born again. Right. So we're out of time again. I know it. But at this point we know that we need to be born again.

We need to, we know that it's something that God accomplishes and it's something that we read in 1 Peter 1 23 that he does through what he does through Christ. So stay tuned and we'll keep reading. Come back next week when we meet the woman at the well. Chapter four. We'll see you next week. Thanks for being with us. More Than Ink is a production of Main Street Church of Brigham City and is solely responsible for its content. To contact us with your questions or comments, just go to our website, morethanink.org.