Chapter # 3 Paragraph # 1 Study # 2
July 30, 2023
Broadlands, Louisiana
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Thesis: The most critical meaning of Jesus' response to Nicodemus is that "to see the Kingdom of God, one must start over".
Introduction: In our last study, as we began to pursue chapter three in the Gospel of John, we saw that Author-John used four characterizations of Nicodemus to attempt to get us to realize just what his major "problem" was. In four descriptive terms, Author-John told us that this night-visitor to Jesus was defining "Life" in terms of the mechanism called "dominion". He told us that Nicodemus was an enlightened man who was being challenged by God, the Enlightener, to leave the darkness for the Light. He told us that the man's name, Nicodemus, means "A dominator of others". He told us that Nicodemus, a man consumed by the darkness of seeking dominion over others, was, in fact, "a ruler of the Jews", which means that he had spent his life in the pursuit of that "position". And, He told us that Nicodemus was "the teacher of Israel", meaning that he held the long-sought status of "the man who has the answers to all things theological". In summary, then, we see that Nicodemus was completely chewed up by his lust for status among men. Thus, this morning we are going to look into the first words out of Jesus' mouth when confronted by such a person: unless a person is "born again" he/she cannot see the Kingdom of God.
- I. Jesus' Answer To Nicodemus.
- A. It is a "Verily, Verily" statement (amen amen).
- 1. We first saw this word in 1:51 where Jesus was emphasizing to Nathanael that, in effect, "You haven't seen anything yet".
- a. Like in our current text, the amen is repeated for emphasis purposes.
- b. This is entirely rooted in the fact that human beings routinely dismiss words, or twist them to mean something otherwise than what they were originally intended to communicate (this is altogether a fault that Sin has brought upon men in order to confuse them unto a refusal to cease to resist the Truth).
- c. The reason for the double use is that something very significant is about to be spoken.
- 2. Our current text is the second time we have run into amen and we find it again in 3:5 and 3:11.
- a. It shows up in this Gospel in 25 places; the next, beyond this context, is 5:19.
- b. As in 1:51, this amen is going to introduce a concept that is extremely far removed from human expectation and understanding.
- 1) But it is fundamental doctrine and requires that we come to God in humility of mind to seek His meaning for His words.
- 2) It is obvious from the translations that this is no small matter (born again; born anew; born from above...).
- 3. We are being told that if we miss this point, a great deal will be lost.
- B. At issue is, for Nicodemus and all Israel (and, indeed, all humanity), whether, or not, he, they, or we, will "see" the Kingdom Of The God.
- 1. The fact that this inability is absolute is shown by two factors.
- a. Ou, the strongest single negative word in Greek for denial.
- b. Dunatai, the strongest word for power and ability in the Greek language.
- 2. Jesus' "verily, verily" statement, coupled with the emphatic denial of "ability" means that we, like Nicodemus, need to be zealously focused upon this issue.
- 3. That this emphatic denial of the ability to "see The Kingdom of The God" means everything to everyone in terms of "Life" and "Death" is inescapable.
- a. This explains the deep significance of "The Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world".
- 1) This sacrifice is so extreme in the details of its impact that not even God would go to such lengths if the outcomes were not so crucial to the well-being of human beings.
- 2) This sacrifice was completely wrapped up in the possibility that men might actually escape their just due in respect to the Infinitely Terrifying Irreversibility of the Wrath that the Just God is going to pour out.
- 3) This sacrifice was also completely wrapped up in the possibility that men might actually enter into the coming Kingdom Of The God after it has been purged of every speck of Sin's impact upon Creation as it relates to the Kingdom.
- 4) And, ultimately, this sacrifice forever shuts the mouths of every person, beginning with Satan, the Devil, who claims that God does not "Love" sufficiently.
- b. This also establishes the actual reality of a "point of no return" from which no one, even God, can backtrack.
- 4. The focus of John upon "The Kingdom Of The God" is not very great in his overall presentation of the Promise of Life.
- a. This "kingdom" is only mentioned three times in the entire Gospel: 3:3,5, and 18:36.
- b. But, mentioned or not, this "kingdom" is going to be the final eternal reality for "life" and "death" for all of creation.
- C. The Crux of the matter: "being born again".
- 1. There are 15 contexts in this Gospel that use the word "born" (gennao), and six of them are here in chapter three (there are five more in chapter nine).
- 2. The six references in this chapter follow from the first use: 1:13.
- a. In 1:13 Author-John linked "receiving Him" (i.e., "believing into His name") to the "authority" to become "children of God" to the obvious requirement of becoming children: "being born".
- b. Then, the issue of "out of" (ek) is immediately raised.
- 1) "Those NOT out of bloods..." (six references in this Gospel, four of which are in 6:53-56).
- 2) "...neither out of desire of flesh..."
- a) There are eight references to "desire" in this Gospel and all of them deal with "desires" to which the 'power' of taking action is applied.
- b) Most of these references are in a context of man's desires in serious opposition to God's desires.
- c) There are twelve texts in this Gospel that refer to "flesh": 1:13 and 14 and 3:6 are the first three with 1:14's "The Word became flesh" being a guiding light.
- 3) "...neither out of desire of a male..." (specifically "male" as in "husband").
- 4) "...BUT out of God."
- 5) John's "point" is not that the lesser involvements are not "involvements", but that they are/were completely subjected to the desire and will of God so that they are not to be considered "important" as to origins.
- 3. The issue is a "birth" by divine action that has its "mirror-image" in some way in physical birth.
- a. The major parallelism is this: a "new" birth means a "new" beginning.
- 1) This signifies that for one to be "born again", he/she must understand that there has to be a jettisoning of everything previous.
- 2) This parallelism is primary: one cannot hold on to anything that was a part of his/her first "birth" in respect to the content of one's mental grasp of how to come to life.
- b. This major parallelism in this context is Nicodemus' fixation upon defining Life as "being in control of others".
- c. Beneath this major issue for Nicodemus, is Peter's declaration in 1 Peter 1:23:
- "...you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, [that is] through the living and enduring word of God".
