Scripture: John 3:9-15
Date: September 11, 2011
Speaker: Sean Higgins
10 years ago this morning, we all awoke to the news that our country had been attacked by Islamic terrorists. They targeted symbols of our nation’s economic and military strength and killed thousands of people within minutes. We watched in shock and wondered how this could happen to us. We could hardly believe the reality of all the United States lost in moments.
Our way of life has been forever changed. Things that we previously depended on, or at least took for granted, have not been stable. We are different now than we were before 9/11, unable to think the same way as we did on 9/10 and before.
Our assumptions of national security were challenged. Our trust in others was challenged. Our hope in the economy was challenged. And we wondered how could this happen to us? Aren’t we the good guys? Aren’t we the superpower? Don’t we possess military intel and strength? Why couldn’t we stop it from happening? The walls we leaned on could not be trusted to hold us.
I want to come back to our response to 9/11 later but, for the moment, I’d like us to consider that our disbelief parallels Nicodemus’ disbelief in John 3. When Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be born again, that reality attacked everything Nicodemus trusted. How could that possibly be? He assumed as a devoted Jew, as an esteemed member of Israel’s supreme court, that he was safe from God’s wrath. He took God’s deliverance for granted and that his participation in kingdom life was guaranteed. Jesus toppled his assumptions, his beliefs, his identity, and Jesus does the same to us today.
We consider the third round of interchange this morning. In John 3:1-3, Nicodemus approached Jesus at night and addressed Him politely as a good teacher from God. Jesus answered that Nicodemus needed spiritual rebirth. In verses 4-8, Nicodemus questioned Jesus and Jesus replied that being born again is the same as being born of water and Spirit, being regenerated, made clean and given a new heart by the Spirit’s sovereign work.
Nicodemus can’t believe what he’s hearing.
Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” (John 3:9)
This is the shortest of Nicodemus’ recorded comments and the last words from him in the story. The rest of the conversation comes from Jesus (verses 10-15) before the apostle John summarizes the point of the story (verses 16-21).
Though Nicodemus came to Jesus with at least a degree of affirmation, now he seems to demonstrate growing exasperation. Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Though every English translation frames the question this way, it really would be better phrased, “How can these things happen?” or “become” or “come into being”? He’s trying to place the burden of proof on Jesus, as if he said, “This isn’t true and how could you possibly expect them to ever be true?”
Nicodemus knew about the kingdom, so he thought and taught others. He knew God’s law and God’s requirements for obedience, devotion, and sacrifices. He knew that Jews were protected, they were God’s people, they were secure. If what Jesus said is true, all the things he trusted in collapsed. How can these things happen?
His question proves Jesus’ point that, apart from rebirth, a man cannot even see the kingdom of God. No matter how certain or secure we believe we are, we’re incapable of making a true assessment about Jesus or His teaching without the Spirit blowing in our hearts.
The remainder of the recorded dialogue is from Jesus.
Even though Nicodemus needed new birth, he should have understood.
Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? (John 3:10)
The rhetorical question puts the burden of responsibility on Nicodemus. Jesus even calls him the teacher of Israel, rather than “a” teacher, meaning that Nicodemus was well known, highly regarded as the teacher of the nation. If anyone should have understood, it should have been Nicodemus. He was part of the right people, he lived in the right city, he studied and taught the right book, he worked in the right system. All of those right things were the wrong things to depend on.
It’s ironic since Nicodemus recognized Jesus as a teacher, but the teacher doesn’t get it. This is why I said that being born again, being born of water and Spirit must have its roots in the Old Testament. Nicodemus should have known as one schooling others in the Jewish Scripture. Intellectually he probably did, but he didn’t believe, or he didn’t believe those things applied to him. He thought he was good and he was wrong.
For the third time Jesus emphasizes the seriousness of what’s at stake.
Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. (John 3:11)
Truly, truly means you really need to pay attention to this. He began His responses the same way in verses 3 and 5.
Jesus says, we speak of what we know. Who are the “we”? No one other than Nicodemus and Jesus have been talking. While the earliest disciples of Jesus may have been listening, they are not mentioned. So who is Jesus talking about? It seems that He is imitating, if not mocking Nicodemus. In verse 2, Nicodemus said, “We know that you are a teacher.” Yet he was by himself. Nicodemus said “we know” so Jesus says, “we know” and we know better. We know better because we bear witness to what we have seen. Nicodemus and others saw the signs Jesus did in Jerusalem. Jesus has seen more than that.
But Nicodemus did not receive our testimony. If he really believed the Old Testament, if he really knew who Jesus was, if he really understood his need for a new heart, Nicodemus would have received Jesus’ testimony. But, like those in John 1:11, Jesus came to his own and his own did not receive him.
Nicodemus assumed he was in the kingdom, he wanted to be higher up in it. Jesus says he’s not ready.
If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? (John 3:12)
It’s an argument from the lesser to the greater. If you don’t know how to count there’s not much point in discussing algebra. How can we talk about framing a barn when you don’t know what a hammer is? The answer is obvious: you won’t get it. This is no excuse for Nicodemus’ unbelief, but rather a greater rebuke.
The earthly things are not human birth or blowing wind. Nicodemus understood and received those things. He didn’t receive what those illustrated: spiritual rebirth. Though regeneration is from above, it is one of the earthly things, one of the basics, an elementary truth right in front of his nose that Nicodemus didn’t get. Jesus is saying, You want to know more about the kingdom? You want to be part of greater things? You’re not even in the door.
Jesus knows better because of where He came from.
No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. (John 3:13)
The things of God’s kingdom, the heavenly things, are best known in heaven where God is. But men can’t go there, come back, and report. When Nicodemus said they knew Jesus was a teacher from God, he didn’t know how true that was.
Jesus isn’t saying that no one has ever gone to heaven. He’s saying that no one has been an embedded reporter, able to get the inside scoop in order to report back. He’s also not saying that He was first on earth, then went to heaven, then is back. He’s making the point that He knows because that’s His home, that’s where He came from.
He wasn’t flesh who took on divinity. He was God who took on flesh (John 1:1, 14). The Father “gave” Him (v.16), the Father “sent” Him (v.17), so He descended and humbly took on humanity, servanthood, and even death as the Son of Man.
The title “Son of Man” is not only Jesus’ favorite self-referencing title, it should have made another connection with the teacher of Israel. The Son of Man was the end times figure that would come “with the clouds of heaven” to inaugurate and rule the kingdom of God.
”I saw in the night visions,
and behold, with the clouds of heaven
there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the cAncient of Days
and was presented before him.
And to him was given dominion
and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve him;
his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom one
that shall not be destroyed.
(Daniel 7:13-14)
The Son of Man would do more than rule the kingdom, He enables men to get into it.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. (John 3:14–15)
The story in Numbers 21:4-9 was familiar in Jewish history. The people were complaining against God and against Moses, again, about their food. They thought they deserved better than what they had. They believed that because of who they were, things weren’t as they should be. How can these things happen?
So God sent snakes to kill them. “Fiery serpents” bit the Israelites and causes them to die. The people realized their sin and cried for deliverance. God told Moses to make a fiery serpent of bronze and set it on a pole. As Moses lifted up the serpent, men could look to it and be saved.
Jesus said to Nicodemus, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. But why? Because men need to be born again. This is the answer to Nicodemus’ question: how can these things happen? How can a man be born again? How can He be born of water and Spirit? How can he see and enter kingdom life? The answer to all of these is the same: Jesus had to die on the cross.
Lifted up refers to Jesus being put up on the cross.
”And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die. (John 12:32–33)
Unlike the bronze serpent on the pole, God gave Himself as the means of salvation on the cross.
Men must look to Jesus because the snakes are killing them. They complain because they think they deserve better. They don’t believe or submit to God. Indeed, they cannot because their hearts are like stone. They are born of flesh and cannot see their own need.
The Israelites were required to look up to the very symbol of the judgement they deserved. So we look to Christ, seeing what we deserved.
We have only one hope: the Son of Man being lifted up. And, as throughout the whole interchange, this offer is for everyone, starting with Nicodemus. Whoever believes in him, not only Jews, but especially the Jews. Not only the Gentiles, but especially the Gentiles.
For the first time in John we read about eternal life. John will write of ζωὴν αἰώνιον 17 times in his gospel. This is “life of the age to come,” this is life in God’s kingdom, this is sharing in God’s own Trinitarian, eternal life. The new birth brings the life of the eternal Word to the believer.
This life doesn’t depend on following a religious system, maintaining a stable economy, or securing military protection. Those are false saviors; they cannot protect us or deliver us from our greatest enemy.
Only the Son of Man, and the Son of Man alone, can save. He was lifted up on the cross and He sends His Spirit to apply that work and regenerate men to belief and eternal life.
The horror and tragedy of 9/11 should have caused our country to turn to the Son of Man. Instead, after getting over our disbelief that it could happen to us, we lifted up the power of human spirit, we lifted up national identity, we lifted up military response, we lifted up economic stimulus packages, we lifted up a homeland security department, we lifted up the debt ceiling. None of these can save us. None of those can give us life.
The Son of Man has been lifted up and we need to lift Him up in our worship and witness. We do not look to the President, we look to the Lord of lords. We will be judged again and again as idolators, and we should pray that God will deliver men from His wrath by causing them to look to the Son of Man.