EPISODE 3 John Chapter 3 ”Born Again”: What’s It All About?

Hi, and welcome to Share the Word, the best way to learn your way through the New Testament one chapter at a time. We know there are a lot of devotionals and encouraging thoughts for the day from the Bible available online, but our goal is a little more to honestly and systematically present the whole story of the New Testament. So let's listen in to today's lesson and go a little deeper. Larry King, the iconic American TV and radio interviewer, claimed that he had conducted 50,000 interviews over his long career. I read that he was once interviewed himself and was asked, If you had the opportunity to sit down with anyone, past or present, and interview them for an hour, who would you choose? Larry, without thinking for two seconds, shot back, Jesus Christ.

Had he gotten that booking, the world would certainly have been watching. Today we're going to consider someone who actually did get to interview Jesus, but as we'll see, that encounter didn't go exactly like he imagined. In the second part of chapter two, Jesus, after beginning his public ministry, made his first visit to the temple in Jerusalem. This was not a local synagogue. This was the temple, the massive stone complex undertaken by Herod the Great and had been under construction for 46 years. It was the heart of Israel's culture and religious life.

Its courts were filled with vendors hawking animals, exchanging real money for temple currency at exorbitant rates, and probably people selling souvenirs and T-shirts. Okay, maybe not the T-shirts, but you get the idea. Jesus' reaction to this scene surprised his disciples. He went on a rampage, overturning tables of the money changers, crash! With a whip of cords, he drove out the sheep and the cattle along with their vendors. Mmm, bah.

But he was heard yelling over top of the pandemonium, Get this stuff out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a place of marketing? This was Jesus' very first public act, right in Jerusalem, right at the temple, right in the middle of the Passover season when the place was jam-packed with worshipers. Now he had everybody's attention, and he had also embarrassed and enraged the religious authorities who ran that place and profited handsomely from all these enterprises. But not everybody in the religious establishment. Some apparently were impressed and intrigued by him.

The Sanhedrin, the ruling council of Jewish leaders, were allowed under the Romans quite a bit of authority to govern in Israel, especially in religious affairs. They also oversaw the temple precinct. Many of the Sanhedrin members were big hypocrites. They fronted as religious leaders, but were really just going through the motions in order to benefit from the power and financial benefits that came from those positions. There were exceptions, however. One such man we meet in John chapter 3.

His name was Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a prominent rabbi, a very well-known religious teacher among the Jews. He belonged to the sect of the Pharisees, a strict religious group that carefully guarded the laws and traditions of Israel's past. Nicodemus sat on the Sanhedrin, but unlike most of them, this man apparently had a sincere heart. He had heard about Jesus' reputation as an extraordinary teacher, and being one himself was no doubt curious about this young man. He'd also heard reports of supernatural things attributed to Jesus, and I'm sure he wanted to know if any of that could be real.

Jesus' outburst at the temple was not something Nicodemus would have had the courage to do, but I bet he felt it needed to be done. How could God not be offended at the raw merchandising that was going on there? For these reasons, and maybe more, this prominent rabbi took the initiative and sought out Jesus because he wanted to meet this impressive young man from Galilee. He seemed to have come out of nowhere and was suddenly causing a great reaction in the nation. He wanted to meet him face to face, size him up, see what he could make of him. We don't know where Jesus was staying that week in or around Jerusalem.

He didn't exactly live like royalty, you know. He had told the fishermen from Galilee, some of whom were now his disciples, If you want to follow me, realize foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head. John remembers the night very well. It happened at Passover, a major Jewish religious holiday. So likely they were camping outside the overcrowded city of Jerusalem. One of their favorite places was the Garden of Gethsemane, which was a park outside of Jerusalem's walls on the east.

So let's picture them there that night, camping out, as Nicodemus appears unannounced at their campsite. I always ask myself as I turn every page, why would John remember this? Why would he choose to include this in his gospel? In this case, I'm sure one answer is because Nicodemus was such an important person. The fact that he came seeking Jesus somewhat secretly at night, that had to have impressed young John. Nicodemus did this, no doubt, because this was not a meeting his associates on the Sanhedrin would have smiled upon.

But I think most of all, John remembers this meeting for the shocking things Jesus said to this important elder of Israel. We can read his recollections of what happened that night in the first half of chapter 3. Listen. Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, Rabbi, we know that you're a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform the signs you are doing if God was not with him. Jesus replied, Truly, truly, I say to you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.

How can someone be born when they are old? Nicodemus asked. Surely they can't enter a second time into their mother's womb and be born. Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying to you, 'You must be born again.'

How can this be? Nicodemus asked. You're the teacher of Israel, Jesus said, and you don't understand these things? Truly, truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and we testify about what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up a serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man will be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.

For God loved the world so much 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 it, but to save the world through him. Let's be sure we understand the players here. Nicodemus, on the one hand, was a leading Jewish rabbi, probably twice Jesus' age. He sat in one of the seats of power in Jerusalem. He was educated, scholarly, respected.

He came to interview, on the other hand, a fellow newly arrived on the scene from an obscure village in Galilee, someone well outside the class considered influential in Israel, someone assuming the role of a spiritual teacher who was untrained in the rabbinical traditions, a young man whose resume, up until recently, was limited to working in his family's carpentry business. Yet notice, Nicodemus didn't send for Jesus. He came seeking an audience with him. And when he finds him, his approach was respectful, even deferential. He calls Jesus a rabbi, a term saved for respected Jewish leaders. He says, We know you're a teacher who's come from God.

I hear you are performing signs. Despite Jesus' total lack of normal credentials, his relative youth, and so on, Nicodemus approached him on equal footing, one teacher to another, to discuss spiritual matters of mutual interest and deep significance. How Jesus responds to this man is striking. He does not exchange niceties. He apparently is not overly impressed that such a dignitary is taking the time to see him. Jesus sees right into the heart of the matter.

He knows this sincerely religious man is here for one reason. He's here to try to figure him out, to try and gauge where he's coming from and what his agenda is. What I think surprised John as he overheard this and as he thinks back on it is that Jesus, rather than responding with a respectful or flattering greeting of his own, responded to Nicodemus abruptly. Let me tell you something in all truth. No one will see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. Nicodemus, I bet, didn't even know how to take that.

It came apparently without even a good evening, nice to meet you, Mr. Nicodemus. It was awkward, so Nicodemus' mind might have been scrambling to make sense of why Jesus would respond to him like that. Maybe to buy himself some time, he responded with the obvious question, maybe jokingly, What do you mean? How can a man be born when he's old? There's no going back into your mother's womb, as if to say, There's no getting another chance at life.

But Jesus spoke again just as directly as before, I'm telling you the truth. Truly, truly, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but Spirit gives birth to Spirit. You shouldn't be surprised that I'm saying these things to you. You must be born again. If I may paraphrase, here's what Jesus said.

Nicodemus, there's the physical birth that generates a new physical life, but there's something more than that. There's a spiritual birth that generates a new spiritual life. You need that spiritual rebirth. Without that, no one is going to enter the kingdom of God, not even you. Now Nicodemus is pretty sure he's getting the implication. Jesus is saying to him that something else is needed in his life for him to be right with God, for him to even be qualified to enter the kingdom of God.

By kingdom of God, the Jews meant eternity with God. We would say maybe heaven. So Jesus actually told Nicodemus, this prominent religious leader, he's not fit to go to heaven unless he is born again. His response to that was, How can that be? I don't see how that's possible. For the third time Jesus said to him, I am telling you the truth.

That is, I'm telling you something I know for certain. Then Jesus makes this jaw-dropping claim: No man has ever gone up into heaven, meaning no human, no religious teacher, not you or anyone else. But then adds, But one has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. Son of Man is a title Jesus often used for himself. He is telling Nicodemus in no uncertain terms, I have come down from heaven to give you the true and authoritative answers to how people can reconnect with God and be fit for the kingdom of heaven, and it requires a spiritual rebirth. Wow, this must have taken Nicodemus aback.

But Jesus continued, It's just as when Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. Like that, the Son of Man is going to be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him can have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will 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. You may not know the Old Testament story about Moses and the serpent in the wilderness, but Nicodemus certainly did. It's from the 21st chapter of the book of Numbers in the Old Testament.

It occurred during the wilderness wanderings of the Jews after the exodus from Egypt. The account there says that at one point the people were rebelling so against the leadership of Moses that God sent poisonous snakes into their camp as a punishment. The rebellious people were being bitten, and some were dying. Somehow they found new confidence in Moses. They begged him to intercede with God for them, imploring him to somehow get rid of those snakes. But God didn't get rid of the snakes.

Instead, he told Moses, Lift up a serpent made of bronze attached to the top of a pole in the center of Israel's camp. Picture a tall flagpole erected in the middle of Israel's camp. When someone was bitten, Moses instructed them, they should look to that pole and they will live. Incidentally, this is where the medical symbol comes from with a serpent wrapped around a pole. Impress your friends with that tidbit of knowledge. Essentially, what Jesus said to Nicodemus is this: the human race is snake-bitten and is dying from the poison of sin.

I have come to be the antidote. I am the one who is going to be raised up. This is an early prophecy of his crucifixion. And whoever will look to me in faith can live. God loves the people of the world so much that he has sent me for this purpose. And whoever puts their faith in me will not die in their sins and face judgment, but will have eternal life.

This is not only Jesus' earliest reference to the cross, where he would make an atonement for sin. Many people feel this is also the greatest verse in the entire Bible, John chapter 3, verse 16. Why? Just listen to it. 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. In it, we see God, the greatest power there is, who so loved the world, that's the greatest motivation possible, that he gave his one and only Son, that's unquestionably the greatest gift ever given anyone, that whoever believes in him, that's the greatest offer ever made, shall not perish but have eternal life, that's the greatest promise imaginable.

This is critically important. It's Jesus clearly stating his mission. No wonder John never forgot this night and what he heard. Be certain you hear Jesus' claim too, because in this nighttime meeting with Nicodemus, Jesus spoke the most profound truths and in unmistakable terms. One of which was, it doesn't matter how religious you are, because Nicodemus was very religious. Being right with God is not something you can accomplish that way.

It's not a matter of being seen as holier than others. It's not doing your best to reform yourself and make yourself fit for God's approval. Don't miss this. Jesus was not looking into the eyes of a drunkard that night, or a criminal, or some kind of notorious sinner. Nicodemus was more religious and devout than probably all of us, probably by far. Yet Jesus told him flat out, You must be born again, sir, if you hope to see the kingdom of God.

You've got to be prepared for that by being changed from the inside out by a spiritual rebirth that only the power of God can accomplish in you. Why would Nicodemus need that? Same reason we all do. Because the Bible says all our natures are morally corrupted by the poison of sin. All of us are sinners by birth and by choice. We're spiritually dead in sin.

We're separated and disconnected from God. You can't reform a dead person, can you? They must be regenerated. You may not recognize this or ever even have been confronted with it before, and it just might put you off, as I imagine at first it put Nicodemus off. But that is unmistakably what Jesus is saying. One of the greatest obstacles for us, I think, to overcome in order to have a relationship with God is realizing first how bad off we are.

Nicodemus may have thought, What's so wrong with me that I would have to be spiritually born again? We must understand that our sinfulness and God's holiness are incompatible. I don't want to trivialize this, but it's like we were created with a clear connection between us and God. As if you're talking with someone on a cell phone and you have a good strong battery and a good strong signal, but if your battery goes dead, the connection is broken. The Bible says the spiritual part of us, the inside part of us that was made to connect with Him, is dead. It was infected and killed by the poison of sin.

The spiritual part of us that is dead because of sin must be regenerated. Jesus called it being born again. And He said it can only happen through faith in what He had come to do for us when He was lifted up on the cross. It doesn't matter who you are, even if you are very religious like Nicodemus, this is the way God has made reconciliation with Him possible. Peggy Noonan has written a book called When Character Was King, in which she relays a fascinating story. Vladimir Putin, who is still president of the Russian Federation, met in the summer of 2001 with the United States President George W.

Bush at his ranch in Texas. Mrs. Noonan, who worked for President Bush, said that he told her when she interviewed him for her book that during their stay together, they had a very personal conversation. Putin, who knew Bush was a Christian, told him that when he was a little boy, his mom gave him a cross to wear around his neck. As a communist youth, this was not something you do, however, so he says, for a long time he hid that cross in a jewelry case. Even though later he arose to power and became the head of the Soviet KGB, he always kept that cross as a symbol of his mother's love.

He told President Bush that not long before their meeting, his house had burned down and that gift from his mother was one of the things he most desperately wanted to find. He had dispatched men to carefully search through the rubble for it, and amazingly, they found it in the charred remains, completely undamaged. He told the president, Now I wear this cross, as he showed it to him on a chain around his neck. He felt as if it was some kind of miracle that it survived the fire and had been found. He said, It's as if something meant for me to keep it. And that triggered a conversation where President Bush told Vladimir Putin what Jesus did on the cross.

That was for all of us. That it was God's greatest display of love when he gave his one and only Son, so that whoever put their faith in him could have eternal life. Whether you're a respected religious leader like Nicodemus, or someone that many of us might think of as an evil dictator, we're all sinners separated from God and in need of a Savior. Have you received Jesus as the Savior that God sent for you? Have you claimed what he did for you when he paid for your sins on the cross? If not, and you realize you need him, you can do that wherever you are right now.

If from a sincere heart of faith you ask Jesus to be your Savior from sin and turn your life toward following him as your leader, you can be born again, spiritually regenerated, made fit for heaven. To have Jesus as your Savior is to have the promise of eternal life. Remember, God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. So what became of Nicodemus, you know? I think Nicodemus eventually came to grips with the spiritual reality Jesus confronted him with that night. I think he finally realized he too, even though religious, needed a Savior and came to believe that Jesus was in fact the Savior God sent.

He might have been a little taken aback by Jesus' directness at first, but I think this man was honestly searching for the truth, and was struck when he heard Jesus say, I am going to be lifted up on the cross, and anyone who will look to me in faith will be saved. Nicodemus was still a sitting member of the Sanhedrin a couple years later that condemned Jesus to that cross. But he and at least one other man on the council were not on board with that decision. The best indicator is that after Jesus was crucified, it was Nicodemus and his friend who came to the Roman governor and asked permission to take the body of Jesus for a proper burial. At that tense time when even Jesus' closest disciples were in hiding for fear of repercussions, Nicodemus, in the end, came out for Jesus, and I expect to meet him in the kingdom of God one day. Thanks for listening.

This is Paul for Share the Word. If you're enjoying these commentaries on the Gospel of John, please help us share the word by passing along the podcast to your friends and family. There's no better way to learn the content of the New Testament than chapter by chapter. For more information, visit us at sharetheword.org. From all of us at Share the Word, our blessings and prayers go out to all of you.