John 3:3-7 "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. (4) 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? (5) 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. (6) That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. (7) Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again."
I make a confession as I begin this writing. In my mind, I had said that my
devotionals maybe were becoming too much like messages from the pulpit rather
than a morning devotional. I had determined that I was going to shorten each
one and just get to a central point and then move on to the next portion of
Scripture. That was my determination. Then I read the first two words of
today's verses: "Jesus answered." I have to smile as I read
this and say, "Yes, Lord."
"Jesus answered." These words were spoken to a man named Nicodemus.
He had not asked a question, yet we see "Jesus answered."
Nicodemus came by night to speak to Jesus. He was a ruler of the Jews, a
Pharisee. He was a notable man among the people with a high reputation for
knowing Scripture. Suddenly there is a "common man", a carpenter, who
appears on the scene doing great miracles and teaching the people with simple
words concerning the Almighty God. He wants to know more about this man, but
because of the "reputation of the Pharisees" he decides to visit
Jesus under the cover of darkness. I say at this point that I admire the man
for his courage to go and seek the wisdom of Jesus. Whether he went in broad
daylight or went by cover of night, the truth is simple: "The same came to
Jesus." (John 3:2)
I know there are those who might disagree with me, but I am of the opinion that
Nicodemus was already a child of God when he came to Jesus. He did not come
with accusations. He did not come to mock Jesus. He did not come with the
thought of inciting others against Jesus. "The same came to Jesus."
Instead of accusations, Nicodemus made a confession or acknowledgement:
"Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God." First,
I do not remember reading any other Pharisee speaking of Jesus as being a
Rabbi, a teacher of God. Nicodemus did. He went on to say, "We know you
are a teacher, and we know you come from God." Paul teaches us in 1
Corinthians 2:14 that the natural mind (that which is born of the flesh) cannot
receive the things of God for they are spiritually (born of the Spirit)
discerned. Nicodemus did not make that confession out of his natural mind;
rather, it had been revealed to him by the Spirit of God.
This is as far as I'm going today. If this point is missed, then we might come to the conclusion that Jesus was telling Nicodemus to go get born again. That is not what Jesus told him. I submit to you that he was already born again and in need of further instructions concerning the spiritual life. Do you know anyone like that? You feel in your spirit that the Lord has done a work on them, but they need some more teaching concerning the work of redemption accomplished by Christ. Jesus instructed his disciples to go, preaching the Word of the kingdom of God. He did not tell them to go, make children of God. Why? Because that is the sole work and responsibility of the Spirit of God. I will talk more about this in further studies, the Lord willing.
I look and I see that I did not accomplish the action of
shortening my writings. But as I said, it seems I had made the statement of
what I was intending to do and then, "Jesus answered." His answer to
my statement was: You write what I tell you to write. I pray I have. I
pray the Lord will bless our study of John chapter 3 - a much misunderstood
chapter in my opinion. God bless each of us.