John 3:1-21
Jesus Teaches Nicodemus
1Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him."
3In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."
4"How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!"
5Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' 8The 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."
9"How can this be?" Nicodemus asked.
10"You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things? 11I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. 14Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
16"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. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.19This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."
Nicodemus was a Pharisee...The word Pharisee means separate one...They believed in the Ten Commandments and the Law of Moses...They had many ideas on the Sabbath...They had many views, beliefs, and even writings on what could be done and what couldn't be done on the Sabbath...They had strict ways about the Sabbath that they followed, on what was work and what wasn't work...They also believed in the resurrection and life after death...The Pharisees had a strong sense of group identity...
Nicodemus was also a member of the Sanhedrin, the ruling group of the the Jews...When he calls Jesus teacher, it is a compliment...Many of the Pharisees thought they knew more about the Sabbath and the law than many of the other teachers...However, Jesus is LORD of the Sabbath, and Nicodemus sees that He is from God, by the miracles he has seen Jesus do...Apparently Nicodemus had not been able to do any miracles, and thought God was with Jesus when He was doing His miracles...It appears that Jesus' miracles was one of the reasons that Nicodemus came in the night to see this Teacher of Miracles from God...
Nicodemus and the Pharisees thought if they followed the Sabbath, and the Laws of Moses this would please God and thus they would be close to the kingdom of God...Jesus quickly begins His teaching and tells Nicodemus that we must be born again to be able to see the kingdom of God...Nicodemus, it seems, as soon as he hears this, doesn't understand the concept of born again...Nicodemus immediately says, how can we be born again, I am old (he is thinking, my mother is much older), how can this be?...When Jesus says, I tell you the truth or truly, truly we should take note, just as Nicodemus is trying to do...Jesus says, I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God, unless he is water and is born of Spirit...Flesh gives birth to flesh but the Spirit gives birth to spirit...You should not be surprised you must be born again...The wind blows wherever it wants to...You hear it blowing, you know the wind is there (after all if is an earthly happening), but no one knows where the wind came from or where it is going...So it is with the Spirit...
Jesus is telling Nicodemus that the wind is originated by God, as well as the Spirit...It is God who creates...We need change and something we cannot understand to get us to see the kingdom of God...Like the wind, which comes about by God, so does the Spirit...No one can see the kingdom of God by himself...We need God to see the kingdom...Again Nicodemus does not understand and asks how can this be?...Nicodemus wants Jesus to keep explaining this about the wind, water, and Spirit...
Again Jesus tells Nicodemus that "I tell you the truth."...Jesus continues and says when we speak of things of what we know, and we can testify to things of what we have seen, and "we" testify to what "we" have seen, but still "you people" do not accept our testimony...I have spoken to you of earthly things (like the wind), and you do not understand, how then can you believe when I speak of the things of heaven...No one has ever gone into heaven -except the One who came from heaven -the Son of Man...Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up on the cross, so that everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life...
Jesus is telling Nicodemus He knows God personally...He has a personal relationship with God...He and the Father are One (John 10:30)...He has been to heaven...When Jesus says "We", He may be referring to the Trinity or the angels of heaven...The Ones from above know both heaven and earth and testify to these truths...This is the answer to how we can be born again...We must read the Scripture of Jesus to understand to see the kingdom of God...It is hard, very hard to understand...We have trouble interpreting the weather, and the wind and it is all around us...How are we going to understand the words of heaven and the things of above...Man's knowledge is limited...Man cannot understand the things of heaven, it is who we are...How can we be born again?...We cannot be born again without God...
This discussion is related to St. Paul's writing on the struggles with sin (Romans 7:7-25)...We want to be perfect, we can't be perfect...We want to always help others, we don't always help others...We want to be just, we can't be just...We are just men and women...For what I do I do not want to do...And what I want to do, I cannot do...Again this is who we are...
Jesus is telling Nicodemus not to be be surprised by these things...Nothing is impossible for God (Luke 1:37)...Things we cannot see like the wind, we cannot explain...Science tries to give us good explanations of things we cannot see, but even the weather and wind today are not perfectly predictable...We have studied the history of weather patterns and have a sense of what the weather will do, and with great technology we are better and predicting the wind and weather...We may use radar and satellites to try to understand the wind, but how does the wind happen, how does the wind get in the upper atmosphere, how did it get there, how does it start in one place and end in other?...The wind is under God's providence...We cannot know all the invisible and great things the God is over...But we can start out spiritually like a baby...Our faith can grow like the child...The water, like the symbol of baptism, is when we express and confess our lives to Jesus Christ...When we trust in the LORD, and allow Him to be in charge of our lives, how could there not be a change?...How could we not be literally born again?..
But with God's help, we can see His kingdom...God knows we do not understand the wind...He knows we are limited...But we can see His kingdom since the Son of Man was lifted on the cross...If we believe in Jesus and the One who sent Him, He will let us see the eternal kingdom, the kingdom of God...
This is how we are born again...God so loved the world that He sent His One and Only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life...This is being born again...