Jesus' Conversation with Nicodemus

Tom:

We’re going through the gospel of John and our purpose is to learn more about the salvation we have in Christ.An important aspect of our salvation in Jesus is knowing Him personally…knowing what He has done for us….and knowing what He wants us to do as we follow Him.And Dave, we’ve said this before in the gospel of John.If our listeners out there have never read the Bible, and they want to get started this would be one good place to start.Because it tells us about who Jesus is and what He has done for us and that’s what we need to know if we’re going to put our trust in Him, put our faith in Him we’ve got to know Him.

Dave:

Well Jesus is being introduced to us here.We are learning something about Him and we are learning a great deal about Him in relation to others.In the chapter that we just had [it’s] very interesting and there are a couple of other chapters that deal with a similar emphasis in understanding.That would be chapter 6 and chapter 8, but here it said in verse 23 of the last chapter, when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover on the feast day many believed in Him when the saw the miracles which He did.And yet it says Jesus did not commit himself unto them.It seems like a contradiction almost because if you go back to chapter 1:12 it says, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:…”So there must have been although they believed not his name, apparently they didn’t receive Him.They had their own idea of who the Messiah was and they didn’t really receive Jesus for who He is, but they believed on His name.I think they believed He was the Messiah, but they had a different comprehension of the Messiah and it says “…Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man” (John:2:24But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men,
See All...).Then in contrast chapter 3 begins: “There was a man of the Pharisees,…” in contrast to these who believed in the miracles, but Jesus didn’t commit himself to them.Now we are going to get some insights.

Tom:

Jesus is going to do some explaining to this man.

Dave:

Right.“There is a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:…” Now he believes in miracles, he believes in miracles also.“The same came to Jesus by night….”Well the rabbis are against Jesus and they have said anybody who knows where He is tell us and I don’t think they had got to that point yet, but that was in their hearts and could a rabbi believe in Him?So He didn’t want to do this openly.I don’t think that was all though Tom.I don’t want to judge him harshly, we don’t even want to judge him, we don’t know, but I think he wanted some intimate time with Jesus.He wanted to get Jesus alone apart from the mob that was always around him and he had some probing questions.I think he was hungering for something beyond just a miracle worker.There’s got to be more to this man than we know.Well he says we know you’re a teacher come from God, nobody can do the miracles you do unless God is with you.So he knows that, but there’s something more that he’s hungering for.

Tom:

Dave this is something that we’ve been talking about for our programs for the last couple of months—understanding—he wants some understanding.He wanted this to make sense and this is a wonderful interchange between the two of them.I’ll pick up again, this is John 3 picking up with 2: “The same came to Jesus by night, (that is Nicodemus) and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.3) And Jesus answered and said unto him,—

Dave:

Now wait a minute before you say what Jesus said, let me just a little bit facetious here.And Jesus patted him on the back and said Nicodemus that’s great, that’s wonderful.You believe I’m a miracle worker, you believe I’m a teacher from God; well you couldn’t need any more than that!

Tom:

Yes, good teacher, good person, a lot of people, they say well that’s enough isn’t it?

Dave:

Yeah, they call themselves Christians, they go to church, they look upon Jesus, well they may even believe in the miracles of Jesus, but a lot of them don’t, but well He gave us some good ethics and so forth and okay—

Tom:

Even the Jesus Seminar gives Jesus good marks every once in a while—

Dave:

Yes, well for some things.Well okay Tom with that out of the way, go ahead what did Jesus really say?

Tom:

“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, (this must mean Jesus meant business.I mean He didn’t just say well here’s kind of the way that it is.)

Dave:

Well let’s dialogue about this Nicodemus.I don’t find Jesus dialoguing.He spoke with authority.Why not?

Tom:

Yes, so this is important.So “Verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John:3:3Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
See All...).

Dave:

Wow, that was a shocker!What do you mean? I’ve never heard anything like that says Nicodemus.He can’t even see the kingdom of God.They were all waiting for the kingdom of God.They were expecting that the Messiah was going to establish the kingdom on earth right then.Throw off the Roman rule and sit upon the thrown of His father David.This is what the disciples thought.This is what they were all looking for. Many Jewish people today say that Jesus couldn’t have been the Messiah because He didn’t bring peace; He didn’t set up His kingdom.That is what they expected; it was in the prophets.The prophets said he would come as the lamb to die for our sins and then He would come the second time as a lion of the tribe of Judah.Why even Isaiah 53 said He’s cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people is He stricken.So you couldn’t imagine that He was really going to do that, but they did not know the prophecies so it shows the importance of prophecy.But another thing: we have Kingdom Hall, we have Jehovah Witnesses out there and they have the Kingdom Hall.I like to ask them some questions.Have you been born-again?You can’t even see the kingdom.They think they’re going to carry on in these physical bodies, but wait a minute.Paul tells us in I Corinthians 15 flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.Neither can corruption inherit incorruption.So unless you have been transformed you can’t enter into the kingdom of God with a flesh and blood body.That’s what Paul says and this is what Jesus is saying here.You’ve got to be born again.Jesus goes on to say that which is born of the flesh is flesh.Well Tom I’m interrupting—you go ahead now.

Tom:

I just want to expand this.Today, you hear people say well he’s one of those born-again persons.You know I don’t know what this “born-again” business is, but— Well Jesus is going to explain it.Nicodemus had this problem.

Dave:

Jesus introduced this idea.Jerry Falwell didn’t make it up or Billy Graham didn’t make it up, or the Pope didn’t make it up.We didn’t make it up.Jesus brought this…

Tom:

Right it wasn’t conjured up by the “religious right” or whatever.Well we’ll here what Jesus had to say about it, but “Nicodemus saith unto 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? (John:3:4Nicodemus saith unto 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?
See All...)

Dave:

It’s not what Jesus is talking about obviously.

Tom:

But it just put aside a misconception here which Jesus is going to deal with.

Dave:

This is not a physical birth.

Tom:

Verse 5: “Jesus answered, Verily verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.Now Dave there’s some different ideas about what this means among Christians, but what’s your view?

Dave:

Tom I was sitting next to a young man on the airplane and I asked him what he thought about Jesus, because he said that in high school he had believed in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior and now he didn’t believe anymore.Well I said what do you think about Jesus today?Well he was a good man.Well I said a good man?You can’t say Jesus was a good man because He said He was God!He claimed to be the way, the truth, the life.He claimed to be the one alone who could die for our sins and He says He could pay the penalty for the sins of the whole world.Now wait a minute, He’s either and egomaniac or He’s and idiot, but you can’t say He’s a good man and He says these things.Now we either have to believe, and this has been said many times, but let repeat it again: That Jesus was an egomaniac; He was a self-deluded fool who really believed this stuff, but it wasn’t true.Or He was a deliberate deceiver, a liar, or He was who He claimed to be.Now we have to have that in the background.Jesus is saying some rather startling things here.That which is born of the flesh is flesh.That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.The first time you were born into this world you became a child son or daughter of your earthly parents.If you are to be in the kingdom of God you will have to become a child of God and the only way you can become a child of God you have to be born of the Spirit of God into the family of God.Now either Jesus is saying something that isn’t true and He’s an egomaniac or He’s a deceiver, or this is true.We’ve got to decide who is Jesus and we are going to have to take Him seriously.And Tom I know you wanted to get into born of water and of the Spirit, but we don’t have time.

Tom:

We don’t have time; we’ll do it next time.Finish your thought, this is good.

Dave:

But we have to decide.Look, what’s a Christian?I go to the Jesus Seminar, I go to some scholars, I go to a university, I get a Ph.D. in theology—wait a minute, let’s go to the founder of this, let’s go to Christ himself.What did Jesus Christ say, and don’t tell me you are a Christian and you do not believe in what Jesus said.You do not obey what Jesus said, furthermore it’s very serious because if He is the only way and you miss Him then you are lost forever and that’s tragic!