Series Theme:   Short meditations in John's Gospel

This Page: CHAPTER 3, verses 1 to 19

Short Meditations in John 3: 1. Nicodemus the man

Jn 3:1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council.

Just a reminder as we go into the third chapter that these are short meditations that will go verse by verse – one verse at a time. As we enter the chapter so we enter a completely new incident and we are introduced to a man: ”There was a man.” I think Nicodemus often gets a hard press with preachers who show him up as a rather slow witted recipient of Jesus' teaching, but I think that is unfair to him. Like you and me he's just a man and sometimes spiritual realities are beyond mere human wisdom. Indeed again and again, as we have already seen in John, Jesus said things that were beyond human wisdom. So why does he say them? To test us and see what our reaction is, I guess is one answer. So go easy on Nicodemus; remember he is just a human being like you and me. But having said that, we will hold him accountable as we each must be!

But he's not just any man, he is a Pharisee. Now I know we are sometimes hard with the Pharisees because they were one of the main groups opposing Jesus but it was because they were conservative believers and they struggled with the things Jesus said. But the truth is that they sought to be the guardians of the Law and whereas others were casual about it, they were not. So they had good intentions, even if they were a little misguided. But I can't help feeling that any religious group who has strong beliefs can fall into the trap they fell into. Catholics are strong on upholding Catholicism's traditions, evangelical Protestants are strong on upholding the Bible and salvation by grace alone and Pentecostals are strong on defending the work of the Holy Spirit. But have we become locked into our way of doing things and have we made idols of our beliefs so that we cannot see the bigger picture that Jesus seeks to convey?

Nicodemus is also a member of the ruling council and therein is yet another area of potential pitfall. I have met rulers, of councils and of companies, and they are more often than not people to be respected. They have been there, done it all and are men and women of experience and knowledge. They know things and often have a lofty viewpoint that many of us don't have. But often they don't have God's viewpoint and there they can come adrift. Having to admit that you are wrong or haven't got the whole picture can be hard when all your life is given over to knowing and getting it right. So don't be too hard when we get to the point where Nicodemus is stumbling to understand. We're like him! We're human, we may be conservative believers and we may be power people, and therefore we may be slow to catch Jesus' teaching.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3:20-36

Chapter 4

Short Meditations in John 3: 2. Open but Unsure

Jn 3:2    He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him."

It is interesting to note how people approach other people when they are unsure of them. We noted previously the things Nicodemus had going for him – he's a good Jew, a conservative believer who strongly defends the Old Testament and he's a respected leader. But we also noted that such things can also be drawbacks and although Nicodemus, as a leader, probably knows how to deal with people he's probably heard sufficient about Jesus to have a number questions and he doesn't want to go like a bull in a china shop and make him defensive, hence he addresses Jesus as ‘Rabbi' or teacher, a title of respect. He needs to move slowly with this man and feel his way along.

But there is another aspect of his coming to Jesus and that is in respect of those of his contemporaries who he has left behind. He's fairly sure they would not be happy with him coming and talking with this man and it is probably for this reason that he comes after dark to seek out Jesus. This way he is less likely to be seen and the word get back to the rest of the ruling council. In the UK it's a bit like a Labour MP going to have secret talks with the Conservative Chief Whip or, in America , a leading Republican going to have secret talks with the Democrat President. It's all a bit under cover – at least from his side of things.

So Nicodemus comes like a diplomat, gently feeling his way: “we know you are a teacher who has come from God.” Always appeal to a man's vanity – except if he is the Son of God, but Nicodemus doesn't realise that yet, but he does realise there is something special about Jesus, “ For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him." Yes, he's heard and he's willing to believe that much of what he's heard may be true, and even if a bit of it is true, something special is going on here!

Now this is something that any seeker of the truth should face. Here we have a book – the Bible – filled with incredible accounts of the activities of God and of His Son, and then His church. If even only ten per cent of them were true that is incredible and would scream the truth, but when we look at these accounts rationally, we have no good cause to write them off. If we come with an open mind, as Bible translator-cum-sceptic, J.B.Phillips, said, they have a “ring of truth” about them. It was that “ring of truth” that brought Nicodemus as a seeker after the truth. Is that how you come?

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3:20-36

Chapter 4

Short Meditations in John 3: 3. Entry to the kingdom

Jn 3:3 In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again

Nicodemus has just mentioned miraculous ‘signs'. Such signs, for those with open hearts, point to God, such signs are an indication of the presence of the kingdom or reign of God and yet, says Jesus, no one can see this kingdom without being born again.

Now this is the first mention of this little phrase, about being “born again.” In some quarters this phrase is almost used derogatorily as if it is some weird Christian experience that those who might wish to be middle of the road should avoid, but that is as far from the truth as you could hope to be! It is a primary requirement of being a real Christian according to Jesus.

Moreover, this experience that Jesus is about to speak about, is key to seeing, understanding, or experiencing what Jesus refers to as ‘the kingdom of God' which we suggested is another way of saying ‘the rule of God'. When Jesus performed miracles it was always God expressing His rule on His earth. Normally speaking, God has made this world to work by what we call materialistic scientific rules, or rules of nature, and we can do nothing to change them, but the One who made the world can! God can speed up healing processes, bring new life back to dead bodies, change water into wine, walk on water or do anything else He likes with His world, for He has the power to do that.

The challenge that Jesus now brings to Nicodemus is about transferring from a kingdom that uses words (where he is presently a ruler) to one where power is the currency, power to change and transform lives. One is man-inspired, the other is God-empowered, we shall go on to see. The big emphasis, we should see in this verse, is not so much about being born again, but on the reign or rule of God in and through us.

It is here that is the sticking point for many nice people who like traditional religion, who like to be in control of their lives. Talk about God ruling, God being the arbiter of all we do as ‘church', God's power transforming us, all this challenges the man-based life. Nicodemus is a human ruler who operates with human power and authority – what other people give to him. Jesus, on the other hand, deals with power to change the physical world, because he is the Son of God who has come to restore people to what God intended them to be originally, and that involves life-changing power, as we will go on to see as we follow this conversation along. The big issue that Jesus wants to bring before Nicodemus is God's rule in our lives and that only fully comes about when the Holy Spirit enters a person and they are ‘born again'. That is why this is so important.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3:20-36

Chapter 4

Short Meditations in John 3: 4. You what?

Jn 3:4 How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!"

I remember many years ago a TV police series with Stratford Johns as a sceptical detective who pulled suspects in and interrogated them and his scepticism of their stories was always expressed as, “You what?” Those two words in that context were shorthand for, “You've got to be joking! You surely don't expect me to believe that!” Now Nicodemus seeks to be very much more polite but that, essentially, is what he is saying.

Jesus has just made a statement which, if taken at its face value in a materialistic world, cannot possibly be true. We know that human beings are born once and that is it. Once you're here, you're here! End of story! Nicodemus, I suspect, thinks of himself when he says, “How can a man be born when he is old? I am an old man so how can this possibly apply to me? Whatever are you talking about?”

Now we have said this before in one of the earlier chapters in John, but it bears repeating. If you are listening to a teacher – and Nicodemus accepts that Jesus is a teacher – and that teacher says something that seems impossible, there are only a limited number of possibilities. First, he's lost his mind. No, that doesn't seem likely for Jesus is still quite rational in all other ways. Second, he's made a mistake and really doesn't mean what he's just said. That, I would suppose, is where Nicodemus has got to. “Do you really mean that?” Now if there were discussing quantum physics or philosophy, that might be a possibility but the language being used is simple and straight forward and easily understood, so it is unlikely that Jesus has been mistaken. Which brings us to a third possibility: Jesus is using ordinary language to convey truth about something else, so what can the ‘something else' possibly be?

Again and again in scripture we find figures of speech being used, that are not to be taken literally. Personification is not to be taken literally. Analogies are not to be taken literally, none of these figures of speech are to be taken literally. So, I ask the question I ask often in these studies because it needs asking of Christians: when you come across something difficult in the Bible do you ignore it or ask God for revelation? There is nothing wrong with being a questioner as long as we come with an open seeking heart. In fact that is the sort of heart that God demands of us. If we don't understand something in His word, ask Him what it means and watch and listen and then rejoice in what you find coming to you.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3:20-36

Chapter 4

Short Meditations in John 3: 5. Twofold Birth Required

Jn 3:5 Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit

Previously Jesus had said, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” Thus now he explains that that means two sorts of birth, a natural one where the natural baby had been protected in water (in the womb), and now a spiritual one where the Holy Spirit surrounds and fills a person. Some suggest that the reference to water speaks of baptism but it is surely far more likely that Jesus parallels natural birth with spiritual rebirth. (The other interpretation is that Jesus means to be born again you need to be baptised in water and in the Spirit. Although true I think the simple parallel here is of natural versus spiritual rebirth and we will see that in the coming verses)

There is within this something far more obvious that we need to note in this illustration. One of the biggest problems that every human being has is that they are stuck with Sin, this propensity to be self-centred and godless. But we also have an ongoing sense that there is something better that we could be. Thus we find shelves of books on self-improvement in bookshops, or courses you can go on to improve yourself. People want to be different but for all their trying they know that still they are those people prone to getting it wrong and failing. Trying harder doesn't seem to get us there.

More than this, people have a sense of the divine possibility, or a spiritual possibility, and thus we find all the religions of the world with most of them reaching out through various means to touch the spiritual – but failing, for the material cannot contact the spiritual. We need a part of us changing so that it can make contact with God otherwise we are just fruitlessly reaching out into the void. Somehow we need help from outside us to meaningfully be able to touch God.

However else we might put this, the simplest way is to say we need a new start, but not just a new attempt at doing things differently but our very being changed to be able to operate on a spiritual level as well as a material level. Unless the source of everything spiritual – God – can do something in us and actually change us, we will never be able to relate on the spiritual level despite all our yearnings.

This spiritual birth that Jesus is hinting at has to have its origin with God because we cannot do it ourselves. The best we can do is try harder but that will never enable us to move in the spiritual realm. No, we need God to do something in us that makes us spiritually receptive, able to communicate spiritually, able to communicate with a two-way communication with God Himself. This is what Jesus is working towards as he prompts Nicodemus.

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Chapter 2

Chapter 3:20-36

Chapter 4

Short Meditations in John 3: 6. The Limit again

Jn 3:6    Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.

There is a sense within these verses that we might repeat ourselves, but that is not a bad thing because these verses create such diverse responses in the Christian world from indifference to vital necessity, that we really do need to be clear in our minds what the head of the Church, Jesus, is teaching us in these verses. If we take them at their face value and note them with other verses from the New Testament, we see they are of vital importance.

This present verse may seem very obvious but it highlights the importance of this subject. We noted previously that the presence of world religions indicates a desire in human beings to reach out for the divine or for a spiritual world, something more than this present material world can provide. There is this clear distinction between material and spiritual and we note that unbelieving atheists who are scientists would deny that there is anything beyond that which is material, but in so doing they ignore a great body of evidence that points towards a spiritual reality.

But in one sense they are right, for there is this material world and we are flesh and blood and flesh and blood gives birth to flesh and blood. Indeed more than that human flesh and blood gives birth to human flesh and blood and animals give birth to animals – and you cannot go beyond that. The fact that we have this inner yearning for some form of spiritual contact, psychologists have tried to explain away in social terms, but the fact is that it is there, and we seem able to do little more than perform rituals and hope for the best. Many religions create an ethical set of standards that go with their beliefs, but even then, if we are honest, we fail to keep them all.

As a human race we find ourselves with these two dilemmas: we yearn for spiritual contact but only seem able to perform rituals, and we yearn to be moral beings but continually show ourselves unable to achieve the standards we long for. On our own we are stuck with these two problems.

And then Jesus Christ comes and starts talking about the possibility of a spiritual rebirth which comes about by the enabling of the Holy Spirit. Yes, notice now that again and again Jesus refers to “the Spirit” and it must be the Holy Spirit that he refers to, because if it was reference to our spirit, we have acknowledged already that we don't seem to be able to bring any change, even though we may believe that one element of our makeup is having a spirit. So with talk of help of the Holy Spirit, Jesus brings us hope of a possibility beyond our own efforts, but we must keep on emphasising it is a work of the Holy Spirit, not us.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3:20-36

Chapter 4

Short Meditations in John 3: 7. Why the surprise?

Jn 3:7 You should not be surprised at my saying, `You must be born again.'

There are things in life – and in conversations – that are obvious, and we should not be surprised at the obvious. We are surprised at the obvious when we have given no real thought to the matter, or perhaps when we prefer not to think about the consequences of our beliefs. We show surprise in such cases almost as a means of self-defence, pushing away the thought that we have been lazy in our thinking or even purposefully negligent in our thinking because it's safer that way.

Consider the order of what has happened here. First Nicodemus has come seeking out Jesus at night acknowledging that Jesus has come from God as he seems to be exercising the rule of God. Taking the opportunity to impart some truth to Nicodemus, Jesus challenges the thought that anyone can exercise the rule of God by declaring that before you can see God's kingdom manifest you yourself need to start all over again on a completely different basis, a spiritual basis expressed, he says, as being ‘born again'. At that point Nicodemus focused on a literal interpretation of that phrase rather than keeping it in the spiritual sense. I put it that way because surely any talk of God's kingdom takes us into the spiritual realm for God is spirit. Nicodemus avoided the big issue – of needing a fresh start; he didn't want to go down that path, as many today similarly want to cast aside the concept of ‘being born again' because it highlights their present need and their inability to do anything about it, and they would rather avoid that sort of thinking.

So Nicodemus exhibits this apparent surprise or confusion that comes from literally applying Jesus' words instead of seeing the truth behind them. Do we sometimes ease ourselves away from the truth or the call of God on our lives by making excuses – I don't understand this, the preacher wasn't clear enough, I can't see what he is really getting at, I don't understand this call to ‘die to self', or whatever other truth is being presented to us? Nicodemus has been doing just this. He is a spiritual leader, a Pharisee who almost certainly is well taught, so he ought to understand what Jesus is saying. A more open response would have been, “You mean I need a new start in my life, a new spiritual start somehow?” but he didn't, he took a teaching that used picture language and tried to interpret it literally, which he must have known was wrong and couldn't be.

So Jesus confronts him with this very simply: “You should not be surprised.” The truths of this situation or this conversation are obvious, so why are you hedging?

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Chapter 2

Chapter 3:20-36

Chapter 4

Short Meditations in John 3: 8. Another Example

Jn 3:8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

There is something I have noticed about God, about the way that He deals with us. It is that He is both gentle and persistent but often speaking in ways that are indefinite and require faith and trust of me to hang on in without full understanding. He loves us and gently prompts us to become thinkers, readers, those who come to gradual understanding, and if that is true of the Father, it is also true of Jesus.

Nicodemus has just stumbled with a bad case of literalism over the concept of being born again but Jesus has not abandoned him. Jesus does not say to us, “You stupid, slow-witted idiot, why can't you see???” No, he understands us. Like the psalmist we can say, “ you have searched me and you know me.” (Psa 139:1) He knows what we are like and knows we are sometimes slow to understand. Yes, there will be times when he chides us: “You of little faith” (e.g. Mt 6:30, 8:26) but more often he simply presses on with his gentle teaching.

So now here we find him using a further analogy with Nicodemus, one of the wind that comes without warning from who knows where and goes who knows where. It is a mystery to the human mind, is what Jesus is conveying here. Because it is a work of God we do not know what He knows and so we do not see what He sees and cannot see the hearts of men and women, hearts that may be changing as His Spirit works on them.

The uncertainty of the moving of the Spirit is the very thing that unnerves some people and makes them back away from such teaching, for deep within each of us is this desire to be in control, to decide what we will do and where we will go. To be told that Jesus and his Spirit go where they will without warning is unnerving. But that is exactly what this verse is saying and it must be really challenging and even more unnerving to a man like Nicodemus, a Pharisee committed to the Law, the predictable and certain law..

I know some who love God's written word (as I do) and who love to play with its words (as I do) and who love to seek out the truth (as I do) but who shy away from the uncertainty of the moving and working of the Spirit. He moves as the knowledge and wisdom of God (both of which are unlimited) to reveal a perfect course of action. He knows when a heart is opening to Him and He moves accordingly. He sees when a man or woman genuinely comes to a point of total surrender of their life to God (and why they do is a mystery) and He is there to enter and release new life and power and the individual is thus ‘born again'.

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Chapter 2

Chapter 3:20-36

Chapter 4

Short Meditations in John 3: 9. Still Hedging

Jn 3:9,10 How can this be?" Nicodemus asked. "You are Israel 's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things?

We have considered previously the possible options that we (and Nicodemus) have when faced with an apparently impossible teaching from God and from His Son, Jesus. We wrote off the possibility that Jesus has lost his mind and also that he's made a mistake and really doesn't mean what he says. He clearly does mean what he says because after the first analogy (being born of the Spirit) he gives a second one (of the wind blowing where it will) and he links the two together – “ So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

Now there is something else to be considered here: the maturity of listeners to Jesus and the openness or otherwise of their hearts. Supposing you were trying to convey a philosophical concept to a child, to an uneducated adult and to a mature, well-educated adult. I suggest you would use language appropriate to their level, because you wish them to understand. If you didn't want them to understand you would use language beyond their present level of knowledge and understanding. So let's ask a simple question: does Jesus want Nicodemus to understand? The answer has surely got to be yes, because in hindsight we can see that these things are not rocket science and Jesus is simply giving analogies that most people would understand. The end product may leave people wondering but they would understand childbirth and the wind and they would understand what Jesus was getting at, even if they didn't see how such a thing could be.

It is often said that sin and self-centredness are blind and at this point we might be forgiven for starting to have negative feelings about the responses coming from Nicodemus – if only we ourselves weren't so slow so often! But he still persists: “How can this be?” Now it is not as if the Old Testament hasn't got much about the Spirit, for it has, and Nicodemus ought to have learnt from its teaching that when the Spirit came on people they were empowered and became quite different – they were like different or new people. Look up the times the Spirit came on people in the Old Testament and you will see it again and again. It is clearly there to be seen – but Nicodemus doesn't seem to have seen it; he's too concerned with rules, the Law.

Jesus isn't going to let him get away with this: "You are Israel 's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things?” You are a leader, a Pharisee and you seek to teach others and yet you do not understand these very basic things I am saying to you? Implication? You should know these things! And us?

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Short Meditations in John 3: 10. Jesus' Testimony

Jn 3:11 I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony.

There are times in Scripture where you expect it to go one direction and in fact it goes another. So far we have had Jesus challenging this Pharisee-leader to get a new Spirit-empowered life and Nicodemus has appeared slow to understand. His last response was , “How can this be?” (v.9) Now instead of spelling it out even more, Jesus pivots the conversation to focus on himself.

Before we take note in detail of what he says, we might simply note that when it comes to the Gospel many of us focus on principles but actually God wants us to focus on the person – Jesus. Yes, it is important for Nicodemus to be born again but before that can happen he has to realise who it is he has been speaking with. When we realise who Jesus is, then everything else takes on a different perspective. Realising who he is and where he has come from is the most important thing that we can ever learn in life. All else follows.

So Jesus turns the conversation with, “I tell you the truth.” That was a cultural way of emphasising the seriousness of what he was saying. It is like he is saying, “I'm not kidding you when I say….” What he is about to say is of utmost importance. The earlier Gospels focused on the things Jesus did and said in respect of God's kingdom. John, with years of reflection behind him, remembers some of the things Jesus said about himself that revealed more of who he was than any of his teaching.

He speaks of himself with the royal ‘we': “we speak of what we know.” That is a strong starting point. I'm not making this up, I know what I am talking about! He continues, “We testify to what we have seen.” Now that is a bit unclear and needs thinking about. What has he seen? Nicodemus had started out, “ we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him." Nicodemus knew because of what he had seen with his eyes. Yes, Jesus knew because of where he had come from. Later in this Gospel John will recall Jesus' speaking of having come down from heaven. This is just a hint towards that. Nicodemus has seen things on earth, but Jesus comes having seen things in heaven for that was his home to which he would eventually return.

Then he brings a full frontal challenge to Nicodemus: “ but still you people do not accept our testimony”. The ‘you' is plural and he clearly means the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin from where Nicodemus has come. Jesus comes bringing the most safe testimony possible; he is the perfect witness but Nicodemus doesn't realise that yet.

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Chapter 2

Chapter 3:20-36

Chapter 4

Short Meditations in John 3: 11. Jesus' Testimony (2)

Jn 3:12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?

Jesus, we noted had moved from talking about spiritual principles to focusing on himself. He has presented himself as a witness, not like Nicodemus who knows things because he has used his eyes, but a witness who knows spiritual truths because he comes from heaven, the home of all spiritual truth, if you like. That will come out more clearly later in the gospel but the hint is here now and will shortly be made more clear still.

He now questions Nicodemus, putting him on the spot, we say, making him assess his position. He is going to point out that he has come from heaven and that is behind what he asks here. Basically he is saying, Nicodemus, we have a problem: “you do not believe” me. It's not a question of mere understanding, you are hostile to the concept of rebirth that I have put before you. I have spoken using analogies of things that all human beings will know about – birth and the wind. There is nothing complicated about that. What you don't like is the challenge I put to you that you need a completely new life, a life empowered and directed by God's Spirit.

Now please note the logic in what we have been suggesting here: Jesus used human analogies that are easily understandable. Problems with those pictures is not with the pictures themselves but with the application of them, which is all about the working of the Holy Spirit. Of course we cannot understand how He works in bringing it about, but we can ask Him to do it for us, because we can grasp the outcome – a new life that is Spirit-empowered and Spirit-directed, a life that God is able to use to extend His kingdom or rule on earth.

But Nicodemus has baulked at this and continued to do so, but Jesus speaks of his wilful refusal to understand in terms of belief – “you do not believe.” Rejection of God and of His truth is unbelief but belief can have an element of the will behind it: we can choose to believe or not to believe. It is an act of will.

Now the problem, Jesus says, is that if Nicodemus baulks at the pictures that Jesus presents to him, pictures “of earthly things”, how can Jesus possibly explain to Nicodemus “heavenly things” ? Note here a problem we may all struggle with. It is a problem of the heart that affects the mind. If our heart is not wide open to Jesus, then our mind will struggle with spiritual truths presented to us. We might think the order ought to be understanding opens the way for obedience, but in reality we are called to be obedient and then understanding will follow. That is what is behind Nicodemus's struggles here.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3:20-36

Chapter 4

Short Meditations in John 3: 12. Jesus' Testimony (3)

Jn 3:13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven--the Son of Man

Because we are only taking one verse at a time in these meditations, we have had to only hint at what we knew was coming in later verses but here, now, we find Jesus alluding to something that doesn't come out in any of the three Synoptic Gospels – that he has come down from heaven. If some of his other claims aren't always very clear, this one really is; there is no mistaking it. In later chapters when he speaks of himself as the bread coming down from heaven it is even more clear, but here there can be little mistake in understanding what he is saying in this conversation with Nicodemus.

Basically he is saying that he is a unique witness and he is that because he alone can speak of spiritual things originating in heaven because he alone has come down from heaven to earth. Now anyone wanting to be picky might say, well angels had come down but, yes, they had but only briefly as short-term messengers. This is something completely different; this is God in human form who has come to live in a unique human life for the length of a human life (admittedly terminated early!) But that is what Jesus is saying and if Nicodemus struggled with the earlier concepts, this is really going to blow his mind away!

Now of course Jesus is actually answering the unspoken question that Nicodemus had come with. You remember his starting place was, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him." Now there is a sense that there he was making a statement: “You ARE a teacher – and that's all (isn't it?)” That, it seems, was what was implied in his opening remarks – yes, I'm willing to credit you with being a teacher and a pretty special one at that because clearly the power of God is with you, but is that all you are? Are you something more?

So now Jesus is giving him his answer: yes, I am, I am the one who has come down from heaven. In the context of what we have been saying, I am the only one who can speak with authority about spiritual matters because I alone have come from the spiritual dimension that sometimes is called heaven. Now it is only John's Gospel that makes this claim in this form but of course the truth of it comes out in other scriptures, e.g. “ Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” (Jn 14:9), “He is the image of the invisible God.” ( Col 1:15) These all say the same thing: this is God that you have seen on earth, God who came down from heaven.

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Chapter 2

Chapter 3:20-36

Chapter 4

Short Meditations in John 3: 13. The Son lifted up

Jn 3:14   Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,

Poor old Nicodemus must be really struggling now as he listens to Jesus and Jesus puts into his lap all these truths, truths that are likely to challenge his mind, his intellect, his understanding. We've been through him struggling with concepts of being born again and the Spirit moving like the wind, and we've been through Jesus alluding to having come from heaven and if that wasn't bad enough for this legalistic leader now Jesus starts using a picture from Old Testament history to reveal what his true purpose on earth is.

What is intriguing about this first half of chapter 3 is that there is not another reference to Nicodemus and John doesn't tell us what his response was to all this. All we do know is that Nicodemus later speaks in defence of Jesus (Jn 7:50) and that he accompanied Joseph of Arimathea to bury Jesus and provided the spices for embalming the body (Jn 19:39). He became a follower.

Was it, I wonder, that when Jesus died on the Cross Nicodemus remembered this part of the conversation? What happened back in the Old Testament with Moses, what does Jesus mean? On one occasion when Israel rebelled in the desert they came to a part of the desert particularly inhabited by snakes and many of them were being bitten by the snakes. It was God's disciplinary judgment on them. Then we find this: “ The LORD said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live." So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.” (Num 21:8,9) This bronze snake on a pole was God's provision so when the people came to look at it after they had been bitten they were returning to God and God healed them. Such was His grace and mercy. The snake on the pole was simply a way for the people to physically come to God, and in so doing be healed by Him.

Now this is a part of their history that Nicodemus should have known about and the analogy should be quite clear – at least in part! Without any other knowledge you would understand Jesus to mean that in the same way that that snake had been lifted up, so he, Jesus, must be lifted up or exalted. It might simply be him saying he has been sent by God to take a place of prominence, as the Messiah no doubt. Of course, in retrospect, we now realise that Jesus was meaning that his ‘lifting up' was in fact on the Cross at Calvary and he was God's means of bringing salvation to all peoples Thus anyone who comes to the Cross and believes in Jesus will be healed from sin (saved).

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3:20-36

Chapter 4

Short Meditations in John 3: 14. The End Goal

Jn 3:15    that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life

These claims of Jesus become greater and greater as he goes along and one wonders how Nicodemus was coping with it all. There are those who claim that Jesus was just a good teacher but the record denies that weak and limited assessment of him. In these verses we have just been looking at how he has first of all claimed that he has come down from heaven, second that he must die a saviour's death and now, that the outcome will be that anyone who believes in him – in who he is and what he has achieved as the will of God – will receive eternal life.

Now perhaps we take these last two words for granted and anyone who comes across them for the first time might be forgiven for thinking that it means that whoever believes in Jesus will never die, and in one sense that is true. The body will die at what we normally call the end of our life, but the spirit and soul will continue in eternity with God. This is the emphasis behind the phrase ‘eternal life', it is life with God.

For those of us who have read these verses many times have perhaps become too familiar with them but for the person who worries about their future and especially what might happen at death, they come bringing new hope. Yes, the promise is that this material world is not all that is; there is a spiritual world and we were designed to inhabit it, but we can only do that when we have been set free from the sin-focused life of self-centred godlessness which is all we knew previously.

Nicodemus comes with questions that were never uttered but were there implied: who are you, what is all this about? He finds answer being given to him that he is not entirely comfortable with – at first sight at least.

First about a new life: You must be born again and have a completely new life, empowered and directed by the Holy Spirit. Only that way will you experience God's rule. How does it happen? Don't worry about that! You accept the wind around you, blowing as it wills without your knowledge or origin or end, so accept the working of my Spirit.

Second about Jesus: But don't focus on the workings of the new life, but realise that I am the one who brings it because I alone have come from heaven and when I am raised up in death, resurrection and ascension I will draw many to myself and if you will believe in me and what I have come to achieve you will receive eternal life, life with my Father in heaven in eternity.

Do you see what has happened: a seeker comes seeking but not sure what he is seeking and he finds the way to experience the kingdom of God by being born again and receiving the work of the Saviour Son.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3:20-36

Chapter 4

Short Meditations in John 3: 15. The Gospel

Jn 3:16  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Thus we arrive at what is almost certainly one of the best known and most quoted verses in the Bible. My own feeling is that this and subsequent verses are commentary by John rather than ongoing speech by Jesus. There is an objectivity about them, I believe, which separates them from what has gone before. Other commentators disagree, but I will approach it as John's summary. Verse 19 onwards especially has the feeling of the early parts of chapter 1 which is John. Whoever speaks it, it nevertheless is The defining statement of the role and purpose of Jesus Christ.

The starting point is the love of God, “For God so loved the world.” Right back before the foundation of the world as the Godhead looked into the future of the world they would create, they saw all that would happen on the part of mankind, but their love still made them go ahead with what looked like a doomed plan. Love was not put off; love looked and saw that there was a way, a costly way, that mankind could be won back but it meant the Son going to the earth and living a human life and then giving up that life – or rather have it taken away from him by mankind – to take the punishment that only the divine being could take to cover every human being and satisfy justice.

Thus we find, “he gave his one and only Son.” Note the emphasis that there is only one true Son of God (the rest of us are adopted). There are no others and therefore anyone else subsequently claiming to be the Son is a pretender. Moreover as far as the Father is concerned, He is giving up to this awful fate His one and only beloved Son. Yet love was willing to do this to win us back.

All it needed was for us to believe in this plan, believe in the Son and believe what he had done, “that whoever believes in him.” Belief is essential because without it we will not surrender our lives to him, so they become available for him to save and to change. This is no mere intellectual assent, this has to be heart and mind assent, heart and mind belief, for without it we will be holding back and it is essential that we completely give ourselves to Him so that he may do a complete work in us.

The outcome is twofold, seen as a negative and then a positive. First the negative: “ shall not perish.” The effect of the Cross is that we will not die for eternity and we will not suffer eternal punishment. Then the positive: “but have eternal life.” We've seen it in Jesus' words previously. This is the end game: life with God for eternity, and it begins right now. This is the wonder of this. Hallelujah!

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3:20-36

Chapter 4

Short Meditations in John 3: 16. Not for Condemnation

Jn 3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Guilt and shame do terrible things in us. They make us defensive and they pull us down. They demean us and strip us of power to live. They make us want to hide away – and especially from God. And the terrible thing is that deep down every one of us knows we are a sinner. We may adopt strategies to cover ourselves up but essentially we feel naked. We struggle to achieve. We see it all the time in society. It goes from the young woman with low self esteem who has a baby as the only means of creating a sense of meaning, purpose and fulfilment, to the small man who was mocked when he was young, who now drives himself to create a business empire where he is a ‘somebody'. “All have sinned.” (Rom 3:23a) we know it.

Inadequacy, not being what we would love to be, what we envy in others, what we sense we could be, if only… We wish we came from a better background, we wish we had been better educated, we wish learning came more easily, we wish we could be successful, we wish we were more handsome or pretty. Incapable, struggling to overcome bad habits, bad attitudes, finding our mouths blurt out things which we immediately regret. Not being what we wish we could be. “And fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23b) or “and fall short of what we know we could be in God's design.”

And so we have these mixes of guilt, shame, inadequacy, incapability and they pull us down and make us little people, unrighteous people, unholy people, sinners – and we wish it could be different, but God is big, God is holy, God looks for spiritual giants, God is there to condemn us, surely.

But that is not what Jesus or John think: “ God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world.” The world is us. God knew what we were like, He knew all the things above and He still sent Jesus. But that isn't strictly accurate, the way I have just put it. He sent Jesus BECAUSE we are like that. He's come to rescue us not condemn us, he's come to save us not slay us.

That's the ultimate for God: “to save the world through him.” Salvation comes only through Jesus Christ, the Son of God who died for our sins and for our salvation. It is “through him”, through Christ; there is no other way, no other method, no other strategy that you can find in the whole world that does this, that forgives sin because the punishment for sin has been taken, that forgives sinners, cleanses sinners, adopts redeemed sinners as children of God and empowers them with the very presence of God – all because of what Jesus has done!

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3:20-36

Chapter 4

Short Meditations in John 3: 17. Condemnation

Jn 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son

There is always a dark side to belief, there are always those who do not believe and the consequences of belief AND the absence of belief are spelled out clearly in the Bible. People may make lots of excuses for their lack of belief but at the end of the day it is still lack of belief and lack of belief is an act of the will, because the unbeliever could always seek and find but they choose not to do. So unbelief is not a neutral thing as some might like to think.

Moses made it quite clear early on in the Bible when he spoke about the possibility of his people going astray, he declared, “ if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.” (Deut 4:29) All it requires to become a believer and follower of the Lord is that you seek him with all your heart.

And the Lord has helped us in this thing because He has put something within us that yearns for eternity. As Solomon said, “He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” (Eccles 3:11) There is within each of us something that hungers to know more than this mere existence.

There is so much evidence that God has provided for us as Paul said speaking of men who, “suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” (Rom 1:18-20) It is plain to see if you have eyes to see.

But when it comes to Jesus it is even more true. Read the Gospels with an open heart and who could but not wonder, who could not see the wonder of this God-man, as Peter said on the day of Pentecost, “Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.” (Acts 2:22) This was not just any man, this was not just a good preacher, he doesn't leave us this option. Thus any person who seeks and reads and sees what is here in the Gospel and then turns away condemns themselves. Someone has likened it to a person who hears a great symphony and goes away unmoved showing they have no music in their soul. Anyone who can walk away from Jesus Christ unmoved shows they have no truth in their soul and are condemned.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3:20-36

Chapter 4

Short Meditations in John 3: 18. Lovers of Darkness

Jn 3:19   This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

What an interesting start: “This is the verdict”. A verdict is a judicial decision after a careful weighing of the evidence. So, the evidence has been weighed in respect of the human race as represented by Israel , and they have been found wanting!

We have already seen John using the analogy of light in respect of Jesus (and it was John in his writing and not Jesus). In the opening verses of the book, usually called the Prologue, he had written, “ In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. (Jn 1:4,5) Yes, later on he would remember Jesus saying, “I am the light of the world,” (Jn 8:12) which is perhaps one reason why he uses this language himself of Jesus. A few verses later on in that Prologue, he had added, speaking of John the Baptist, “He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.” (Jn 1:7,8).

What does light do? It reveals things, it shows the way, it shows things up for what they really are, it exposes the acts of men to be seen by others, it enables us to live normal lives, seeing what we are doing clearly, it helps make sense of the world and enable us to live in it.

And John refers to Jesus as the light, but here he is pronouncing a verdict on humanity because of what he had observed. Yes, the “light has come into the world,” he had been a witness to this light but he had also been a witness to something else: “but men loved darkness instead of the light.” You might have expected people to welcome the light for all the reasons we noted above, the things light does, but they hadn't. As the apostle Peter had declared, “Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.” (Acts 2:22) Those things Jesus did, should have come as light revealing who Jesus was – The Light, but instead, “This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.” (Acts 2:23) God knew how it would work out and it was by the rejection of the very people who should have gladly received him, the religious leaders and the leaders of the religious community, the Jews. Why did they reject him? “because their deeds were evil”. They were in fact self-centred and godless. If they hadn't been they wouldn't have rejected The Light.