Sermon Tone Analysis

Recap - What did we learn from the previous session?

In John 2:11 we learn:

Jesus is God.

So He was able to do a miracle.

Jesus is God.

So His disciples believed in Him.

Jesus is God who came to give His life to save people from eternal damnation.

Jesus and Nicodemus

The Curious Inquiry of Nicodemus

Now, let us turn to John 3:1-21.

This is the well known story about a Pharisee, named Nicodemus.

Before going into this passage, let us get some idea of Jesus.

Jesus came to give hope and life!

We know this from chapter 1.

In John 2:25

Jesus is aware of a man.

What we see from here on is that Jesus will have conversations with some individuals, but gets right to the heart.

To begin with, Jesus will have a conversation with Nicodemus, “a man from the Pharisees” (Jn.

3:1).

He was also a ruler of the Jews.

Who is a Pharisee?

What does it mean by a ruler?

The origin of the term “Pharisee” comes from the Aramaic word פרשׁ (prsh), which means “to separate,” “divide,” or “distinguish.”

PHARISEES (Φαρισαῖος, Pharisaios).

Members of a Jewish party that exercised strict piety according to Mosaic law.

The Pharisees were a sect within early Judaism, becoming active around 150 BC and enduring as a distinct party until being subsumed into the Rabbinic movement around AD 135.

Nicodemus was also a ruler.

Meaning, he was one of the rulers.

He must be from a wealthy family.

So the term “ruler” means:

one who has administrative authority, leader, official

He comes to Jesus at night.

Some suggest that he might be scared that other members would notice Nicodemus meeting Jesus, so he came at night.

Or that he won’t be noticed by the Gentiles.

Some say, that night time is when rabbis studied.

Others believe that:

The best clue lies in John’s use of ‘night’ elsewhere: in each instance (3:2; 9:4; 11:10; 13:30) the word is either used metaphorically for moral and spiritual darkness, or, if it refers to the night-time hours, it bears the same moral and spiritual symbolism.3

Doubtless Nicodemus approached Jesus at night, but his own ‘night’ was blacker than he knew

Nicodemus addressed Jesus as Rabbi.

What is the significance?

He recognized that Jesus was not an ordinary man.

He, that is Nicodemus, observed what Jesus was doing?

Jesus did many miracles by this time, though there was only one mentioned in the previous chapter.

Rabbi is, “(Hebrew) an honorific and respectful term of address for a teacher of the Mosaic Law (or the Scriptures).”

Nicodemus then says, “we know.”

Pointing out that it was not just him who noticed something unusual in Jesus, but there are others as well.

But not only that, he was also saying, that “we have come to believe.”

Then he says, we know that you are a “teacher who has come from God.”

So, we see a recognition of who Jesus is.

The he explains (explanation) that no one could perform the signs “unless God were with him.”

(v.2).

Now, notice that Nicodemus was not “confessing” that Jesus is God - he only recognized that God must have been with Jesus (like with other prophets in the O.T).

So we notice two things in the verse:

Recognition of Jesus being a Rabbi, and a teacher.

He must have come from God.

This is a good starting point to think of who Jesus is?

Remember the major theme we are learning about - why did Jesus come to this world?

Then we notice:

The Conditional Response from Jesus

What is this conditional response?

John 3:3 (CSB)

Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Jesus makes it clear - that unless one if born from above, no one can experience the kingdom of God.

For Jewish people, then, the concept of kingdom of God comes at the end of all.

To a Jew with the background and convictions of Nicodemus, ‘to see the kingdom of God’ was to participate in the kingdom at the end of the age, to experience eternal, resurrection life.

But Jesus is saying two things here:

One must be born again or born from above.

without being born again, you cannot experience the kingdom.

I see that Nicodemus was confused.

So I see that the response Jesus gives to Nicodemus was a bit confusing.

Nicodemus did not ask any question in his statement, did he?

Nicodemus did not ask Jesus, “Master, what must I do to be saved” like the Philippian Jailer asked Paul and Silas in Acts 16:30 “He escorted them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?””

So Jesus’s response here was a bit confusing.

However, confusing it may seem, it is really not so confusing, because Jesus knew what man is.

So He goes right to the heart of the issue.

So he says, John 3:3 “Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.””

In other words, what is the Lord’s answer?

“The Lord answered not his words, but his thoughts.

The Lord’s answers to questions will be found generally to reveal the true thought of the questioner, and to be fitted to guide him to the truth which he is seeking.”

But what was Jesus talking here?

What does it mean by “born-again”?

It means an inner transformation of a person’s life.

In Ezekiel 36:25-27, the text says:

So, being “born again” is regeneration.

Regeneration is:

REGENERATION The transformation of a person’s spiritual condition from death to life through the work of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is saying, the, that in order to experience the kingdom of God, one must be born again - that is born from above, or by the Holy Spirit.

That is, regeneration is an “act of God.”

Only God can do this.

Psalm 51:10 gives us an idea.

So, one must be born-again to experience the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus then, rightly asks:

The issue here is the phrase, “born-again” can be understood as born from above, or born again.

Nicodemus understood the phrase as “born-again”, and not “born from above.”

But, Jesus further explains what He said in 3:3 in 3:5.

With this statement, it seems like Nicodemus is even more confused.

(But obviously, he is supposed to know somethings, being a teacher of the law himself).

What is it now?

“Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit.”

Are these two births?

Born of water and born of the Spirit?