Sound The Trumpet : Jesus teaches the teacher

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“Jesus teaches the teacher”
by Hugh Davidson
November 25th, 2007

John 3:1-12 “There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?”

In reply to Jesus statement about the need to be born again Nicodemas asked the first of two questions and the first was, “How can a man be born when he is old?” and then the second, “Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?” And what he was asking were actually two questions about the same thing. And the first one is, how can this happen when I’m so old and I think he was saying that as far as he was concerned, it was too late for him to start all over again. He had been heading down the same road in the same direction for so long that it seemed impossible for him to go in another direction. And he was also asking, how can someone like me who has achieved so much in life admit that all I’ve done was a waste of time? And that’s why he asked the question, “Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?” After all, for him to start all over again would be like him erasing life’s experience and going right back to the beginning. And the problem Nicodemas is having with the concept of the new birth is that it didn’t make sense to his way of thinking, so, he was telling Jesus, this might be possible but I don’t understand how. And to him, he had to understand the new birth before he could accept it.

There are several interpretations of what it means to be born of water and the spirit but I think the simple method is to see it in its context. Verse 6 says, “That which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of Spirit is spirit.” I believe the water refers to the amniotic fluid of the mother’s womb which is a reference to our physical birth and just as you had to be born of flesh to get into this world, now you have to be born again to get into heaven. And just as you took on the sinful nature of your earthly parents at your physical birth, you take on the sanctified nature of your heavenly Father at your new birth.

And Jesus uses the wind as an illustration when He says, “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit” and then He explains that even though we know the wind is blowing because we can see its affect we don’t actually see the wind itself. And just because you can’t see something doesn’t mean it isn’t there. There were two brain surgeons working on a patient and one was a believer and the other an atheist. The atheist said, “For all the patients I’ve ever worked on, I’ve never seen a soul.” And the Christian asked, “That may be true but have you ever seen a thought?”

There are several theories about what makes the wind blow but no one really knows for sure and so it is with the work of the Holy Spirit of God. We can’t manipulate Him or dictate what we want Him to do but His presence is obvious by the works He does. Think about this, why did God choose to use D.L. Moody who was practically illiterate when there were all kinds of educated men around who believed the same things he did? Or why did God use someone like John Newton who had been a wicked slave trader when there were plenty of other men who had led decent lives in the world? The answer is simple: God uses those He wants to use. God is God and He doesn’t answer to man and He certainly doesn’t have to explain Himself. .

And then Nicodemas asked his second question in verse 9 when he said, “How can these things be?” And what he was saying was simply, I don’t understand. It doesn’t make sense to me. And Jesus responds by saying, “Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?” We are told that Nicodemas was one of the most popular preachers around and people would ask him about everything but here we see that he had no answers for himself. He knew the Bible but he didn’t know the Lord.

And Jesus said, if you don’t understand the basic concept of salvation then how can you hope to understand any other spiritual truth? And then He used the illustration of how the Jewish people in the Old Testament had sinned and God told them to hang a serpent on a pole and all who looked at this serpent were healed. Here Jesus was giving an illustration of how faith worked in the past but I also think He was indicating to Nicodemas that one day He’d hang on the cross as He who knew no sin became sin for us and all who look to Him would be saved.

And do you know what the strange part of this account is? We don’t know how Nicodemas responded. It doesn’t say if he repented of his sin and sought the forgiveness of Jesus or if he said, I’ll think about it and get back to you later. So, he was a nice man and very religious man but he wasn’t born again. Are you?

Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13