Jesus and Nicodemus
In John's gospel (chapter 2) we read that Jesus clears the temple courts, drives out the money changers, and openly confronts the way the Jewish people were worshiping God. The temple leadership understandably asks “by what authority does he say and do these things?”
John follows up this action packed sequence with a late night conversation between Jesus and a man named Nicodemus. Its possible Nicodemus was used to represent certain elements of the Jewish leadership (he was a member of the Sanhedrin). Jesus' comments to Nicodemus could have been directed to a larger audience than just this one man. Which may be why John included this in his gospel.
John 3:1-2 Nicodemus acknowledges Jesus as a teacher - to address someone as rabbi was a big deal. So, he's acknowledging Jesus as having a sort of special status... perhaps even a peer (a big deal for a guy who sits on the Sanhedrin). His words indicate he is looking into the matter because of the signs and miracles.
Miracles and Authority
When John the Baptist asked Jesus if He was really the Messiah Jesus reply was "I come doing the things the Messiah was prophesied to do"... "the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them"... what do you think? ...
So, signs and miracles are offered up as proof… but notice though that Jesus referred to miracles that fulfilled written prophecy. Therefore tying back to the written word.
Belief based on miracles alone is actually warned against in scripture Deuteronomy 13:1-5 tells us "if a person comes among you doing miracles but tries to lead you away from the God of the covenant, do not believe or follow such a person". So again, you have to know what the written covenant is.
When Phillip asked Jesus to show them the Father. Jesus said, "I have been with you all these years teaching you and telling you about deep spiritual things and you still don't really believe me. You should believe me based on what I have told you (and Jesus taught from the scriptures), BUT if you do not believe me based on the words alone you should have believed the words based on the works you have also seen me do" (John 14:9-14). Notice again the connection of miracles with the word.
Witnessing miracles is no substitute for knowing the God of the covenant through His word! But miracles can work together with God’s word.
Think Like Nicodemus
Nicodemus is saying; “I know the scriptures, and you seem to fit the criteria for the Messiah, or at least a holy man ... But yet you criticize the temple worship, you do things on the Sabbath we say are forbidden... you sometimes sound like you are that false prophet who is leading us away from the God of our fathers”.
But Jesus teaching is always grounded in scripture:
- The sermon on the mount is basically an exposition on the ethical principles of the old testament.
- Matthew 12:1-11 - with regard to addressing basic human needs like procuring food on the seventh day... Jesus uses the scriptures to validate... David eating of the sacred showbread, Levitical priests preparing the meal sacrifices on the Sabbath, and finally Hosea 6:6 to tell them they are completely missing the point about what it means to work, or not work, on the Sabbath.
- When He drives money changers out of the temple Jesus cites Isaiah 56:7 God's house should be a house of prayer... and then Jeremiah 7:11 my house has become a house of robbers.
Point: When people portray Jesus as completely overturning and replacing the old testament with something new and different they are way off base. Jesus was not giving Jews anything they hadn't already heard or read. But He did say they had missed the spiritual intent of the scriptures. He was giving them new and deeper understanding of what was already there in the old testament scriptures. So, He was not leading them away from the God of the old testament.
Signs and miracles may attract attention, but the person who does these signs is still held to the biblical standard... if they are leading you away from the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob do not follow them. The words and the teaching are what matters, and they must be built on the foundation of the law the prophets.
When NIcodemus says "we see the signs and miracles which seem to indicate you are truly a man of God". Jesus comes back with a retort that says "you don't actually see anything because you don't understand the teaching".
John 3:3-8 no one understands the rule of God (kingdom of God) unless they are born again, or born from above.
Nicodemus' Jewish perspective would have been: the Messiah would return, Israel would be restored to a political state ruled by the Messiah, all Jews would be admitted to that kingdom (unless they had abandoned the faith, blasphemed, or otherwise turned their back on God). Some would enter that kingdom through resurrection.
As a teacher in Israel Nicodemus would have taught that you should prepare to enter that kingdom by reshaping and restructuring your life according to the laws, statutes, and judgments of God. To get an ethical and moral makeover. Entrance into the kingdom would be based on personal merit.
To this Jesus teaches - You are missing some essential points… this entrance into the rule of God only comes about by a spiritual rebirth... to be literally born of God.
Jesus says a person must be "born again from above (again)". He talking eplicitly and concretely about being conceived, and birthed... (Nicodemus response about going back into his mother’s womb shows he understood this was what Jesus was saying).
The word again also means "from above" referring to the spiritual life force of God actually placed in you... like the act of conception between a man and a woman. So you might really be be "born of your Father" an authentic member of the God family... and of the God kind… “we shall be like Him (1 John 3:2)
Was this a Departure From Previous Biblical Teaching?
John 3:9-10 sometimes I have read this and thought... poor old Nicodemus... how was he supposed to know all this. Yet Jesus talks to him as if this teaching was basic knowledge staring him right in the face all this time.
So, we should expect to find Jesus' teachings (even those about the resurrection and spirit born life) to be embedded in the old testament scriptures.
7 Points a Teacher in Israel Would Have Known?
- They knew about the coming of a Messianic Kingdom by a physical descendant of David Isaiah 9:6-7; 11:1-2; Zechariah 9:9-10
- This King would be God's servant guided by His spirit Isaiah 11:1-2; 42:1; 49:1-3
- This King would be God's servant, but at the same time this king would be Himself God Isaiah 9:6; (kind of like John 1:1 the word was with God, and the word was God)
- They knew YHWH was sovereign over all earth (not just Israel). Therefore everyone is in God's future kingdom whether they like it or not Psalm 103:19; Zechariah 14:9; Daniel 2:44
- Israel's special position was to serve God, to fulfill His reign over all nations Exodus 19:5-6; Deuteronomy 4:6-8; Daniel 7:27
- The holy people would be people who had died and were resurrected Daniel 12:1-3
- This model of rule would be everlasting 2 Samuel 7:12-16; Daniel 7:14
Jesus drew upon this core of understanding when He taught that entrance into the kingdom of God was equated with resurrection and entrance into a new kind of life. Not just a life cleaned up of sin but an eternal existence where the power of life itself is embedded in this new spiritual creation... Conceived, and birthed, brought to full maturity, given an inheritance in the family of God.... what He was getting at by saying "born from above"... born of the power that comes from Heaven itself.
Jesus is taking what they (the teachers of Israel) should have known and building on that. Not with bricks made of His own imagination but with bricks made of scripture. So He is still able to say, you teacher of Israel, you should have known this.
How might we get to the next level of understanding using what we find in the scriptures as Nicodemus would have known them?
- God's spirit is the power of life itself - Genesis 2:7; Job 34:14-15
- Old testament looks forward to an outpouring of this holy spirit Joel 2:8. This was not something they already had by virtue of being a living human. It is for regeneration of life out of something barren and lifeless - Isaiah 44:3 (like the living water Jesus would later refer to); Ezekiel 39:29; Isaiah 55:1-3; Jeremiah 2:13; Ezekiel 47:9; Zechariah 14:8
- The spirit brought about a transformation of something dead to something alive - Ezekiel 11:19-20; Ezekiel 36; 26-27
- This life force is placed within resurrected people - Ezekiel 37:10-14
- The holy people are referred to as God's sons Exodus 4:22-23; Deuteronomy 32:6; Hosea 11:1.
- As sons they would be of the God kind John 10:34-37. (Jesus is the proof that a human being can also be a full fledged son in the family of God). Notice again the equation of using the works to validate His teaching... but teaching that is based on scripture not creative imagination.
Jesus is not offering teaching that is radically out of step with, or meant to replace, what is already there in the old testament. But he is offering magnification and clarification which Nicodemus and people like him should have been able to understand based on the foundation they had.
Nicodemus would have understood the vast chasm between what man is and what God is.
He would have understood that kind begets kind. So for human beings to become actual sons of God would have required something happening beyond the flesh... to be begotten by God Himself. A new spiritual creation which is born all over again on a different level of existence. And that is how one enters into the kingdom of God.
Yet Nicodemus said "how can this happen"... what you are proposing is impossible... Jesus says this is what God is doing... He has told you all along... you should have known this... if not then you should be aware enough to accept what I am teaching right now which is based on scripture itself.
Its not about the miracles.
