Observation and Principles

With much wisdom comes much folly.  The Pharisees had taken their religious training and used it to identify who was not really a part of the “club.”  The thought that they understood what God was about and why YHWH would send a Messiah (to reward the faithful and condemn the unfaithful).  Jesus was doing His best to completely change that way of thinking.

Jesus mentions the story of Moses and the serpent.  This reference comes from Numbers 21.  The Israelites grumbled against God, so God sent serpents among the people.  The ones who were bit died.  When the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD that He take away the serpents from us.”

God told Moses to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole.  Anyone who had been bitten could look at the serpent and would live.  It was a visible act of repentance.

Sin is like the deadly venom of the serpents, and there is only one God-given cure.  The Son had to be lifted up (which we find out later meant being crucified) so that all who believe could live–eternally.

The beautiful part of the story is that God did not want the world to be condemned.  If He had wanted that, He wouldn’t have sent Jesus.  God loves us and that is why He wants us to have eternal life.

Most people are drowning in a sea of sin.  Death is eminent, but they refuse to grab hold of the lifeline that Jesus has offered them.  They are destined for death by their refusal to repent.  They are drowning because they love their sin more than t hey love righteousness and they are ashamed of what the righteousness might expose about them.

Those who come into the light are there by the grace of God, and their righteousness is not because of the things they have done, but because of the things Jesus did.  The only way Christians can stand in the Light is by putting on the righteousness of Christ.

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“Rabbi, We know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”

When Nicodemus said this, was he speaking for all the Pharisees?  What if they recognized that Jesus was from God and still plotted against him?  They weren’t just angry because of Jesus’ message, they hated Him because of His power.  They set on a course to run God out of Israel so they could set themselves up as gods among their people.

Oh the Pharisees would never say, “bow down and worship me.”  They were devout Jews, but the did insist on keeping the rules and making sure everyone else kept the rules–and the rules added to the rules.  They emphasized right actions.  To them, perhaps just knowing Jesus was from God should have been enough.  From this perspective, Jesus’ answer makes a lot more sense.

v. 3 “Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Just knowing in your head isn’t all it takes.  It’s about yielding your life to the Spirit.

Maybe Nicodemus was sent to deliver a message from the Pharisees, “We know you are from God, now can you lay off with the miracles.  You’re making us look bad.”  I guess we will never know why Nicodemus came to Jesus that night, but we can be sure that Jesus rocked his world.

v. 9 “Nicodemus answered and said to Him, ‘How can these things be?’”

Jesus had caught Nicodemus’ attention by challenging the basic assumption that right actions/head knowledge is enough to please God.

Jesus had some hard reproof to offer.  “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?”   Then they sat down and Jesus shared the heart of God with Nicodemus the Pharisee.

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