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You
see Nick’s spiritual blindness bleeding through in (vv. 4, 9, 11)! His question had a backdrop; it is called being indoctrinated by a work-salvation that was pervasive in Jewish culture. He was in desperate need of spiritual detoxification, but right
now he is in an intellectual quandary in reconciling the simplicity of salvation, being born from above, that Jesus is presenting to him against the
complexities of pharisaic indoctrination of meriting heaven ever since he was a
boy.
“Physical
birth is not enough, Nick?” In fact, it has nothing to do with physical birth.
It is difficult for us to relate to what Nick is going through given his
background. For all of those years in preparation for his role as ruler and
teacher, he has been living and teaching a lie, if what Jesus said was true!
Only the Spirit can get him out of the weeds and into spiritual green pastures (Psa 23:2).
John
3:10, Jesus
answered and said to him, Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these
things?
and
do not know (Gk.,
ginosko, experiential knowledge as opposed to intellectual knowledge)
The answer to that question is “No.” Jesus makes a shift here from academic
(intellectual) to applicational knowledge (experiential). You cannot talk about
what you don’t know spiritually for Nick was all about having hands-on salvation.
Jesus laid it out there that salvation was spiritual in nature.
How
many traditions do we peddle among the churches predicated not on Scripture but
a misinterpretation of Scripture? A proposition with a list of verses
purportedly in support of this or that proposition does not automatically mean
it is even biblical in nature!
Bereanism
challenges a proposition by searching the Scriptures, not giving way to
man-made credentials (Acts 17:11). I love that about the Bereans, “Do the
Scriptures bear out what Paul and Silas are telling us?” Instead of Nick and compadres
searching the Scriptures, they investigated what the rabbis had to say instead!
“Garbage in, garbage out.” Where have we heard that input-output theory?!
These
things (neuter
plural)
Generally
speaking, everything told Nick heretofore since v3. Nick’s credentials and
reputation made his spiritual bankruptcy even more graphic! Jesus is not being
mean; this highly respected teacher of Israel had it all wrong about
salvation!
John
3:11, Most
assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen,
and you do not receive Our witness.
The
dialogue shifts to discourse with vv.11-21.
Most
assuredly, I say to you,
Most
assuredly (transliterated
from Hebraic origin: amen, verily, truly, surely)
According
to Spiros Zodhiates, Word Study, “In the entire NT, only the Lord Jesus
uses amḗn at the beginning of a
sentence as a word of affirmation. Throughout the Gospel of John, the Lord uses
the word amḗn, doubled in John 1:51,
‘Amen, amen, I say unto you,’ or ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you,’ which could
be rendered, ‘I who am the Amen [Truth itself] tell you as a most certain and
infallible truth.’”
Okay, here comes the third most assuredly (v3, 5, 11)! Three
strikes and you are out of here! Nick wasn’t hitting any home runs off of Jesus.
The fastballs were zipping by the old Homeplate (I know; I am being
anachronistic here). Actually, Jesus was throwing them right down the middle of
the plate to give Nick every opportunity to knock the ball right out of the
park. V4, Nick didn’t connect; v9, he couldn’t even get a piece of the ball;
and v11, the ball of truth whizzed by him!
V11
indicates he struck out that night, leaving in the night the same way he came.
Jesus knew Nick couldn’t take the fastball down the middle of the plate
because He knows things, right!? From the very outset when Nick stepped up to
the plate at base camp, Jesus wanted Nick to know that anyone stepping up to
the Homeplate will always strike out as long as he or she believes salvation is merit-based .
We
already know what Nick was trusting in order to see the kingdom of God. He
wasn’t focused on the ball of truth at all, but rather a lie, a lie that he
personally and irresponsibly perpetuated among the Jewish people of Israel
along with the Sanhedrin. Why did he not connect with the ball? Because
spiritually blind batters cannot hit what they cannot see while the ball of
truth zips by!
I
say to you
You
is
singular and referring to Nick.
Most
assuredly, I say to you, Nick, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and
you do not receive Our witness.
We
Know and testify what We have seen,
What
a contrast to we
know (Nick
and the Sanhedrin) in v2. That was general knowledge that even a man born blind
receiving his sight could figure out on his own (Read it in Jn 9:32-33; I love it!)!
Jesus was a witness from personal experience.
And
you do not receive our witness
You
is plural
here!
And
you, Nick, and the rest of your
colleagues of the Sanhedrin, continually do not receive our witness
This
was an indictment! Nick’s unbelief was indicative of the nation as a whole (cf.
Jn 1:2, we
know).
Neither Nick, the Sanhedrin, or the nation of Israel were able to make contact
with the ball of truth that Jesus was throwing across the plate of unbelief (v11-12).
Regeneration was/is essential.
John
3:12, If I
have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I
tell you heavenly things?
Please
note that all four occurrences of you in this verse are plural pronouns making reference back to we (Nick and the Sanhedrin) in v2. As a figure of speech, Nick
would be treated as a synecdoche for the Sanhedrin; the very ones Nicodemus
aspired to be a part of, to be like them, looked up to, respected, and admired.
He was spiritually blind and so were the majority of the Sanhedrin membership
(71 in number). How about some good old southern translation here? It works for me!
If
I have told y’all earthly things and y’all do not believe, how will y’all believe if I
tell y’all
heavenly
things?
Jesus
was born ~6 miles south of Jerusalem in the city of Bethlehem; doesn’t this qualify
Him as a southerner?
The
problem with Nick and the Sanhedrin wasn’t their intellect, but unbelief to
take Jesus at His Word; you must be born from above. I do not think that Jesus expected for Nick
to report back to the Sanhedrin what Jesus said for he came to Him under the
cover of darkness (v1), yes?
With
the inclusion of the plural pronouns and Nick being a member of the Sanhedrin,
Jesus is including Nick and the Sanhedrin as having one and the same problem,
unbelief (cf. Jn 1:11). Since Nick came to Jesus at night; he is not
representing the Sanhedrin in any official capacity, except for sharing the
corporate theory of the probability that God is with Him given the miracles or signs performed by
Him (v2), but Nick’s one on One meeting with Jesus and His disciples was private and personal (no members of the Sanhedrin were aware of this clandestine meeting) though he parroted the theory of the Sanhedrin circulating about Jesus at the
present time.
Identifying
the earthly
things and
heavenly
things are
debated. Unbelief reveals both Nick and the Sanhedrin were in spiritual
darkness (1 Cor 2:14; 2 Cor 4:4). If Nick failed to see understand earthly
analogies that he needed to be born again to enter the kingdom of God, he will
not believe if told heavenly things as revealed in Jesus’ discourse and neither
will the spiritual leadership of Israel.
John
3:13, No
one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is,
the Son of Man who is in heaven.
No
one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven
There
was a stratospheric arrogancy that the two religious-factions of Judaism (the Pharisees
and the Sadducees) had all the answers to earthly and heavenly things. Had any
ascended to heaven? I can think of only two (Enoch and Elijah) who were taken
up, but they are still up there! Did any come down from heaven? Uh, Jesus.
Unlike
these two great men, Jesus, God the Son, before His incarnation, had spent eternity
past with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, and He came down and ascended by His own power; I might add! I would
venture to say He possessed unparalleled qualifications on earthly and heavenly
things, being the Almighty Creator and all, yes?
That is, the Son of Man who is in heaven
In
this discourse (Jn 3:10-21) the Son of Man is mentioned twice: here and Jn 3:14. This
phrase, the
Son of Man, occurs in Matthew
(32x), Mark (x14), Luke (26x), and John (11x) and appears to be a more favorite
self-designation that Jesus gives of Himself than the Son of God. The latter implies
His deity while the former of His humanity. These designations mean that Jesus is
fully God and fully human, one person having two natures (cf. Dan 7:13). God
really does love the sons and daughters of Adam; this is such a stark
antithesis to Satan.
Who
is in heaven
Some
want to leave this out (check out some of the various translations and
paraphrases!), but there is no justifiable reason to do so. It is not an interpolation.
I will admit it seems awkward to read since we are in pre-passion, and there is
mention of the
Son of Man who is in heaven and at the same time is there speaking with Nicodemus and
the twelve (cf. Prov 30:4). But what if we look at this outside the box of our
own human framework and thinking from an attributional perspective that though
Jesus is on earth, He never really left heaven because of His attribute of
omnipresence or everywhere present.
Do
you trip out that the Incarnate Jesus is on the throne of heaven and simultaneously
lives within every heart of the believer? I didn’t think so. How about this
one. The God-Man will never vacate His throne, but He lives within your heart
as a believer! Don’t let the enemy suggest to you, “It ain’t so?” It is so! It’s
so so-so according to the Scriptures that it’s so downright comforting to know that
my Savior will never leave me nor forsake me (Heb 13:5), a promise for every
believer, even as we make our way upward!
Well,
my friends, we could probably spend a lot more time at base camp, but I am
itching to tackle the summit! We picked up some spiritual
supplies here to take with us for our ascent, and it’s all good. With
the verb lifted
in v14, we
will take that as our cue to head on up and make our way up to the summit of John
3:16. Once reaching the peak, we will take a look around from one of the truly great spiritual summits of Scripture.
Then we will place our pennant
on the mountain top, like, “Michael was here,” and praise God for
taking us up there to appreciate the spiritual truths we will find along the
way up and on the summit above the clouds in our trek for truth. You can’t
trash the place because it is all spiritual, and that’s good for any environment! <><
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| End of Series: John 3:9-13 |
