Lesson #08

• He was a priest of the Pharisee party.
• The Pharisees were the most prestigious group of leaders in Israel.
• They believed in the coming of the Messiah, the validity of the Old Testament scripture, and the resurrection from the dead.
• He was a member of the SanhedrIn, the religious authority in Israel.
• The Pharisees were recognizable by everyone because of their clothing. As a result, people were expected to move out of their way as they walked down the street.
• The name, Nicodemus, means = Innocent blood.

(2)

• Notice that Nicodemus says that all the Pharisees knew Jesus was a teacher from God.
• As a group the SanhedrIn evidently had discussed their reaction to the miracles they saw earlier in the day. They had come to the conclusion that the miracles were valid and from God.
• Neither Jesus’ friends or His enemies doubted the miracles.
• Why did Nicodemus come to see Jesus, when he had obviously seen Jesus in the temple and could have spoken to Him there?
• He comes to Jesus as a Pharisee to talk about the kingdom of God.
• The Pharisees were interested in bringing the kingdom of God into existence so as to throw off the bondage of Rome. However, they did not have the means to overthrow Rome.
• Why did Nicodemus come at night?
• It is possible Nicodemus came to talk when Jesus was not surrounded by people.
• It is possible Nicodemus came in fear of the other Pharisees.
• Jesus discerns that this Pharisee is different. He has a heart that is open to God. Therefore, Jesus commits himself to working with Nicodemus, while He discerned that the others in the temple were not open to God.
• What is the key to spiritual understanding?
• A humble attitude that acknowledges one’s need of God. This is the key to spiritual understanding. This was the attitude of Nicodemus.
• “we know that thou art a teacher come from God”

(2)

• Nicodemus speaks with tolerance concerning Jesus. Tolerance is thinly veiled rejection. Jesus did not permit tolerance from people. He forced them to declare their true feelings of either acceptance or rejection.

(3)

• It is from Jesus’ response that we know Nicodemus came to discuss the kingdom of God.
• What is the kingdom of God?
• The kingdom of God has various aspects:
• The kingdom of God was in Jesus when he walked on earth. (Mat 3:2 Luk 17:21)
• John the Baptist said the kingdom was at hand.
• The kingdom of God is in every believer whose king is Jesus Christ. (Col 1:12-14)
• The kingdom of God will one day fill the earth after the second coming of Christ in the Millennial kingdom when Jesus will reign as King on earth for 1000 years.
• The kingdom of God is eternal. (Rev 21-22)
• For there to be a kingdom, there needs to be a king, and there needs to be people who are the subjects of the king and citizens of that kingdom.
• What does the phrase, “born again” actually mean?
• Does being “born again” mean that Jesus taught reincarnation?
• No. On the contrary, the belief in reincarnation is not scriptural and not Christian.
• Read Heb 9:27
• This scripture tells us that judgment comes after death, not another round of being physically born over and over again.
• In today’s world there is much misunderstanding about this phrase, “born again”. You can hear it in reference to a general, exciting life-changing experience. Is this what Jesus meant? No.
• The Biblical meaning of the phrase “born again”:
• The Greek word for “again” is a word that means = from above.
• In other words, it must be a spiritual birth that comes from God.
• Because of this meaning, some unique, exciting experience that changes your life does not qualify as an interpretation for the phrase, “born again”.
• What exactly is a spiritual new birth?
• Because of Adam’s sin, all humans are born with a flesh nature prone to sin and subject to Satan. When a person puts his full trust in Jesus Christ and invites Him into the heart, the Holy Spirit gives him a new nature. He is immediately transferred from the kingdom of Satan to the kingdom of God. With a new spiritual nature, he can now see and understand spiritual things in the kingdom of God.
• Then why does man still have a flesh nature after being born again by the Holy Spirit?
• The flesh nature is at war against God and cannot be changed. (Rom 8:7-8) That is why Jesus said, “…That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” (6) Therefore, God gives the believer a new spiritual nature that lives alongside his flesh nature.
• Nicodemus should have understood spiritual regeneration for the following scriptures:
• Eze 36:25-27 Jer 31:31-34 Joe 2:28-32 1Sam 10:6 Isa 32:15
• Nicodemus had knowledge but he did not have understanding. Understanding comes by the Spirit of God.

• Does verse 5 teach that a person is regenerated by water baptism?
• There are some who say, yes. They believe that when a person is baptized in water, he is born again and saved for eternal life from that moment.
• Read Rom 6:3-11
• Paul’s teaches that water baptism symbolizes one’s personal identity with the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Water baptism publicly expresses outwardly what has already occurred inwardly…a spiritual new birth.
• If Jesus did not mean water baptism, what did He mean by the words being born of water and the Spirit?
• Water is a Biblical symbol for a thirst for the Word of God that cleanses. This symbology goes throughout the Bible, and John will use the symbol later in chapter 4. (Exo 30:18-19 Psa 42:1-2 Psa 72:6) Nicodemus, a scholar of the Word of God would have known the meaning of this symbol. (10)
• Read Eze 36:24-27
• Read Eph 5:26-27
• The Word of God and the action of the Holy Spirit who reveals truth to a person’s heart, convicts a person of sin. Once a person confronts the fact that he is a sinner, he is now ready to hear about the solution for man’s sin problem….salvation in Jesus Christ.

(8)

• This is another phrase that refers to the Holy Spirit. He is like a breath of wind that moves in the hearts of men who are open to God. You cannot tell where the wind will blow, but you can see the results when it does. The same is true of the Holy Spirit. When a person is born again by the Holy Spirit, you can see the results in his life. (Gal 5:22-25)

• Jesus has not told Nicodemus anything to which he could not relate based on his knowledge of the Word of God. (10)
• “We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.”

(11)

• This is a bold reprimand of Nicodemus, that he is not receiving God’s message.
• Jesus speaks in the plural because, as a member of the Holy Trinity, He is speaking for God. Is Jesus claiming to be God? Yes.

• “And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.”

(13)

• This is Jesus’ statement of deity to Nicodemus. We will examine it phrase by phrase:

• “…no man hath ascended up to heaven…”

• How could Jesus say that no one ascended into heaven when Elijah did in 2Kin 2:11? In the Old Testament, up to the time of the crucifixion, all Old Testament saints went to a place called Abraham’s bosom, when they died. It was not until the crucifixion that any believer that died went to Paradise in heaven.
• “…he that came down from heaven even the Son of man …”

• Jesus is the Son of Man who came down from heaven. He is the only one qualified to speak about heaven. The Son of Man is the title Jesus used for himself to identify himself as God with fallen man. It is a Messianic title given by Daniel. (Dan 7:13)
• “…the Son of man which is in heaven.”

• Jesus tells us that the Holy Trinity is intact in heaven even though He, as the second member of the Holy Trinity, is simultaneously present with Nicodemus on the earth.
• This phrase is deleted from many new versions of the Bible. It is essential to counter the Gnostic belief that Holy deity could not inhabit sinful flesh.
• The message of the serpent on a pole: (14)
• Jesus gave Nicodemus an example of God’s plan for the Messiah:
• Read Num 21:4-9
• What then is the exact meaning of Num 21:4-9?
• The purpose of the Old Testament experience of the serpent on the pole in the wilderness was to be a prophetic type or prefigure of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on the cross.
• Jesus became sin (the serpent) for us on the cross. The serpent on a pole is a symbol of that spiritual transaction when Jesus took on himself all the sins of the world, past, present, and future.
• When we look with faith on Jesus Christ, we are healed of our sin problem, for He forgives us of our sins, just as the Israelites were healed of the snake bites when they looked at the serpent on the pole. True faith needs an object of that faith. Jesus Christ is the object of he believer’s faith.
• Why did Jesus use this Old Testament experience in Joh 3:14?
• Because of Nicodemus’ spiritual openness to God, Jesus commits himself to Nicodemus by revealing to Nicodemus by what means He would die. As a member of the SanhedrIn responsible for instigating the crucifixion of Jesus, Nicodemus would later remember these words and try to defend Jesus (7:50) and then take part in the burial of Jesus’ body (19:39).
• Nicodemus’ choice: (15)

• “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

(15)

• Like Nicodemus, every person must make a choice whether to believe or not to believe.
• It is that choice that enables a person to see the kingdom of God or not. If a person chooses not to believe, he will not see the kingdom of God. He will not be born again, and he will not have eternal life.
• The Holy Spirit gives every person a tiny measure of faith. (Rom 12:3) With that measure of faith, if man chooses to believe that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, he will be saved for eternity.
• God’s eternal plan and God’s formula for salvation: (16)
• The love of God sent Jesus Christ to this earth that man might believe.
• Then, did God save the world by love?
• No, God saved the world by grace. God sent His Son, Jesus, to this earth to work out God’s plan, but the operative ingredient in our salvation is God’s grace.
• Read Eph 2:8-9
• If God had saved the world by love, every person would have salvation and eternal life.
• When God’s love, the measure of faith given by the Holy Spirit, God’s grace, and man’s faith to believe, all come together, salvation for eternal life with God occurs and causes that person to be “born again.”
• The word, “believe” in verses 15 and 16 is a word that refers to saving faith as opposed to simple mental assent that we saw at the end of chapter 2.
• What is it that man must believe?
• You must believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your personal sins; that He died in your place. Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, is the object of your faith.
• “

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (17)

• Jesus’ purpose in his first coming was to save man. Jesus’ purpose in the second coming will be to judge man.
• The Pharisees believed that when the Messiah came, He would judge.
• Therefore, Jesus is clarifying this point of doctrine to Nicodemus. Those who are not believers in Christ are already condemned by their own choice in not choosing to believe in Christ. Because sinful man is already condemned by his own sins, Jesus did not have to come to condemn man.
• Jesus’ summary: (19-21)
• Because this is a world of darkness and evil controlled by Satan, man is already condemned to eternal separation from God. But God sent Jesus into the world to show us light. However, because man loves darkness and sin, he did not acknowledge Jesus Christ for who He really was, God in the flesh.
• “But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest…”

(21)

• How does a person “do truth” so he can come to the light of Christ?
• If a person is willing to turn to Christ, God gives him the ability, through the action of the Holy Spirit, to see his deeds in relationship to God’s holiness. With this attitude of humility, God’s formula for salvation occurs and the person is born again.
• The Greek text indicates that “to do” truth in this passage is a one time event. It is not something you keep doing over and over again. Therefore, it refers to the one time event of being born again.
• John returns to his statements of chapter 1 about light that came into the world through Jesus Christ.
• With the light of Jesus we have the absolute truth of God.
• With the light we are aware of the condemnation of sin.
• With the light of Jesus we have guidance into truth.
• With the light of Jesus God is illuminated to us.
• Summary:
• What do you learn about the following topics in this passage?
• Regeneration
• Regeneration is a spiritual transaction that occurs when a person desires the light of truth in his life, takes the measure of faith given to him by the Holy Spirit, and believes in His heart that Jesus personally died for his sins on the cross. Regeneration is being born again when the Word of God convicts the heart and the Holy Spirit gives him the light of truth about who Jesus really is.
• The Holy Spirit
• No one is born again without the action of the Holy Spirit who:
• Draws the person to the light of God.
• Convicts the heart of sin.
• Reveals Jesus Christ.
• Gives the person a measure of faith.
• Seals the spiritual transaction with His presence inside of the believer.
• Faith
• Man’s part of this spiritual transaction is to have faith, which, even that, is given to us by God.
• Eternal life
• Eternal life is the end result for all those who have done the truth and come to Christ in repentance.

HOMEWORK
John 3:22-36
This is a self-study. Please do not send homework answers to the teacher forcorrection.

• Application of Joh 3:1-21
• Are you “born again” into the kingdom of God? Explain how this happened to you.
• If you have not had a born-again experience with God, you need only to pray and ask God to forgive you of your sins, and ask Jesus to come into your heart and life. Then as you put your whole faith and trust on Jesus Christ to change your life, He will confirm what the Holy Spirit has done in your heart by making you a new creation. (Read 2Cor 5:17)
• Indecision is a fatal disease.

• Preparation for Joh 3:22-36
• Read Joh 3:22-36
• What are the keys to John’s marvelous attitude of humility?
• What is the meaning of the parable that John the Baptist gave in verse 29?
• What do you learn about Jesus from this passage?
• What is the difference between belief “on” Jesus and belief “in” Jesus?

• Memory verse: John 3:33