Let's continue to read in John 3 from verses 9 - 14:
9 Nicodemus responded and said to Him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered and said to him, “You are the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? 11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you people do not accept our testimony. 12 If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven, except He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
When Jesus is having this conversation with Nicodemus, and he asks the question, “how can these things be,” it was more of a statement of shock. Nicodemus thought he was okay, had everything together outwardly. “I am a good person, I have tried to live my life the best I can. After all these years, with all that I have studied and practiced, how could I have gotten this relationship with God so wrong? Nic was deeply troubled, anxious, he had no confidence that he possessed eternal life. That he was good enough, he was hoping that Jesus would give him some advice about what he should do or stop doing to get into the Kingdom of God. He wanted to have that assurance, that peace, that joy and that real hope of heaven.
This is what the Word of God does - it brings light on our lives- on our beliefs, on our motives, on our relationships with the Lord, with one another.
Jesus said, “You are a teacher of Israel, a rabbi, why don't you know these things? You should have understood what I was talking about the moment I spoke about the water and the Spirit in verse 5. The prophet Ezekial wrote about this in the OT, 600 years before Christ had come in Ez 36:25-27:
25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
Water is a symbol of life and cleansing, speaks of Jesus atoning sacrifice, the payment and forgiveness of our sin. Only God can save, only He can give us a new heart and a new spirit. When God’s Spirit dwells in you, He becomes your strength and gives you the power and the desire to follow Him, walking in obedience to His Word.
Nicodemus thought in order for him to be accepted by God, in order for him to save himself, he had to outwardly conform to the commands and requirements of God. But Jesus, God-incarnate, was saying to Nicodemus, you cannot save yourself. “You need a radical transformation from within. You need a new heart which will come alive by my Spirit. Then, and only then, will you be able to follow me.”
Nicodemus you know that a husband and wife can bring another human life into this world. Through natural birth you become a member of an earthly family. But to become a member of God’s family, you must be born from above, only God can give you eternal life. Nicodemus you shouldn’t be surprised by what I am saying. The wind blows wherever it wants, you can’t actually see it, but you can see it’s effect. When the Spirit of God fills a person with new life, even though you can’t see the Spirit, you will see His effect on the person He changes.
In verse 11 Jesus tells him, I am telling you the truth, and we (including disciples) have seen what happens to the life of a person when they place their faith in the Messiah. Even though you and many of the jews have seen this, you have seen my miracles, and heard my words, you even admit that no one can do these things unless God is with him, but you keep rejecting it.
12 And if you have heard and seen all these things done on the earth and still do not believe me, then what is the use of going on to explain more of the details of how life will be in the heavenly kingdom?
The only one who can speak with such authority about the Father, about Heaven, about your need and everyone's need for a radical transformation from within is the one who came from Heaven, God himself.
Obviously, Nicodemus had not gotten the point, so Jesus uses another illustration that Nicodemus would have been very familiar with since his childhood about the bronze snake in the desert. It is found Numbers 21 where God had sent a plague of poisonous snakes on the children of Israel as punishment for their persistent murmuring. Many people died from these bites and the survivors appealed to Moses in contrition and confession, so Moses interceded to God for them. And in accordance with the divine instruction he “made a bronze serpent, and set it on a pole; and if a serpent bit any one, all he or she would have to do is look at the bronze serpent and live” (Numbers 21:5-9). If one of those bitten Israelites, who looked and lived when he or she was at death’s door, had been asked how they felt, they might well have said that he felt as if he had been born all over again and received a new lease of life. That was a renewal of natural life, but here it serves as an example of receiving spiritual life.
Jesus was saying just as the bronze serpent was lifted up in the desert, and those who looked on it were saved from physical death, so the son of man will be lifted up on a cross, and those who believe in him will be saved from eternal death. He was saying:
The son of man will be lifted up on the cross and take the poison of sin on himself, this poison which brought death on the whole human race. If you want to experience a transformation of the heart, if you want your eternal destiny to be forever changed, If you want to have that assurance, that peace, that joy and that real hope of heaven. You simply need to simply believe in the Messiah. Only Jesus was good enough to save you.
As we enter into this year. I believe God wants to do a new thing in our lives, in our church this year. I believe His desire is to transform our lives and church so that we are that we reflect His life more and more, that we glorify Him by lifting Him up in our lives and in the church, and then He will draw all people unto Himself. He wants to change you forever and to use your life as an instrument so others can be forever changed.
