Gospel of John, 3:5-21
John · Courtney Hemenway · Feb 17, 2008
Gospel of John (2008), No. 07
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492605353774

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Alright, so we are on lesson 7 and we're going to go through John chapter 3. It said verses 5 through 21. You know, one of the things that we get into when we get into these studies or anything like this is we end up Cutting out a little section, then we look at this little section, then we go to the next little section, then we look at the next little section. So, what I want to do, if my voice holds up, I just want to read through the scripture today. I'll go 1-21, John 3, chapter 3, verses 1-21. I want to read it as a whole, and then we'll go back and dissect it.

There's kind of a flavor of what's going on here with Nicodemus, and then the Gospel message is presented. So follow along if you want in your own Bible. This is out of the New American Standard, starting in verse 1, chapter 3. Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. Jesus answered and said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time in his mother's womb and be born, can he? Jesus answered. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of Spirit is Spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."

Nicodemus said to him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said to him, Are you a teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

No one is ascended into heaven but He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He who believes in him is not judged.

He who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son. This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men love the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. but he who practices the truth comes to the light so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God." Alright, we'll stop there. Okay, from last week's lesson we looked at Nicodemus.

Who was Nicodemus? He was a Pharisee. And what is a Pharisee? A Jewish religious leader. Yeah, he's kind of the one who's supposed to kind of know it all as far as the, for the Jews. A Jewish leader, a religious hero, serving as missionaries for Judaism. And he was part of the Sanhedrin. So, you know, what is the Sanhedrin? It's a ruling council. It's a ruling council over the Jews. It was the highest ruling body in court of justice among the Jewish people in the time of Jesus. Headed by the high priest of Israel, the Sanhedrin was granted limited authority over certain religious, civil, and criminal matters by the foreign nations, the Romans at this time, that dominated the land of Israel at various times in its history.

Last week, Mike touched on the question perplexing Nicodemus. From verse 3, what did Jesus say that had Nicodemus confused? And verse 3 says, Jesus answered him and said, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. So what was the perplexing problem for him? He thought it was a physical rebirth. Born again? What does that mean? Born again? What do you mean? Can I enter my mother again and be born again? Didn't Mike say, though, that wasn't a foreign concept to them? Yep. That's why later one of my questions is, Jesus is rebuking him, which is one of the questions we'll get at. Because yes, it was known. It wasn't a foreign concept to the Jews.

Would he have understood that to be born again or born from above? Because the word is born from above. Yeah, the actual Greek word is born from above. It's anathem, or anothem. Yeah, born from above. It's still the same concept. It was from God. You know, the birth, and we'll get into flesh and spirit, water and spirit, still the same thing. That God intervened and there was a new birth. And we'll get into that a little bit.

The question of being born again in the kingdom of God to a Jew was the problem. The term born again is a term applicable to both Jews who believe and are saved so as to qualify into the kingdom and for those who believe during the church age and are therefore placed in the body of Christ. We will touch on these topics as we get through. So the born again is for the Jew as well as for believers.

The term, this one is born from above when you get to First Peter, I think, when it's born again, and some of those verses, that is anew, which is something new. So it's a little bit different than the born above. Ginnomine. Yeah, ginnomine, exactly. So that's born anew, which is something new and kind. So it's a little bit different when we get into the epistles where it says born again, versus this one, which is, if you really look at it, it's born from above. But his problem was basically born again and this is into the kingdom of God.

We'll get into it a little bit here. We'll go to the questions now. From verse 5, what does it mean to be born of water and the Spirit? In 3.5, Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. This verse is also connected to verse 6 where Christ says, that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. So does this refer to water baptism? No, it's physical birth. Yeah, so baptism? Water baptism? No, it is not.

It is related to birth and I have from William Kelly he addresses this. Hence too it is important to observe that he is thus born again is said to be born of the Spirit omitting water in verse 6. So in verse 6 he doesn't put the water. So basically it's associated with water with life. This verse and a lot of commentaries were beating up A lot of people kind of contort these verses that basically say you have to have baptism for life, and where baptism is a part of conversion or acceptance and that, and this is one that gets twisted quite a bit. the word or water emblematically, can do nothing towards quickening without the Spirit, who is the efficient agent in communicating the life of Christ.

Water cleanses, but it itself is not capable of quickening. It is the death to the flesh. There have been only flesh before, now as believing in Christ, the man is born of God. As flesh never becomes spirit, so too spirit never degenerates to flesh. It basically is saying, again, this is not water. Water does not represent, or baptism, represent life.

And actually, the next quote I have is from Harry Ironside. And I think he hits it a little bit more. I know that there are those who tell us that to be born of water means to be born of baptism, but no one ever received the new life by water baptism. You can search your Bible in vain for anything like that. It is not there. It is not in the Word of God. Nor is baptism in Scripture likened to birth. It rather speaks of death. We are buried with him by baptism into death. Water baptism is a picture of the burial of the old man, not a picture of the second birth.

So that one, I think, hit it pretty good. Again, this verse, a lot of people, a lot of commentators were saying, this is the one that everybody pulls out and says, aha, you've got to have baptism. Baptism is a part of believing in Christ. Yes. Some say that it can be translated, born by water, even the spirit. Kai can be. Is that not a good translation?

Well, it is representing birth, but it's not This is basically just, and when you tie it into verse 6, which is the flesh, it's really just saying that this is flesh. It's flesh and spirit. That's the two topics that are being done. So in verse 5, and then he goes in verse 6, where he says flesh and spirit. So, you know, I think even, actually, When I looked at the commentators, some of the commentators, William Kelly, Darby, Ironside, indicate the word water, as a figure, is always a word applied by the spirit.

And that's in Ephesians 5.25.26, that when husbands love your wives, Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her so that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of the water with the word. that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she would be holy and blameless. Talking with Vern about this, the water here is connected with verse 6, which indicates flesh. This is more representing flesh and spirit, water and spirit, flesh and spirit, so 5 and 6. Like I said, some commentators think the water is the word, by washing of the word, washing of the water, word, the similarities between that.

You know, I can see both. The word has to be worked by the spirit for anything, so the water and the word work together, but then again, water birth, basically flesh, identifying ourselves with flesh and then spirit, the two different sides. I think that we're watering. I don't know just how, but I get the impression they're talking about the word. What? The washing of the word.

See, you're with half the commentators. When I talked with Vern, it was kind of like, well, it was more represented. When you link five and six together, they're kind of overlapping. Flesh and spirit, water and spirit. I can look at it both ways and see the connection. But again, it's really just the contrast between flesh and spirit. And we'll get into that a little bit.

What is the difference between that? Okay, question two. And this is the important one, I think. What does the kingdom of God mean or represent? And who is this message to? And how does it relate to the term born again? First of all, let's address who is the message to? Who is he talking to?

Jews. Nicodemus. What is he? Leader of the Jews. He's a Pharisee, a Jewish ruler. So it's really critical when you're looking at scripture and doing things. Hal used to talk about this a lot, and I remember it was hard sometimes, because you look at scripture, and Vern had a lot on the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew.

And who is that to? Jews. But a lot of people take that now and go, well, that applies to me. Does that apply to us in the body of Christ? No. But what about 2 Timothy? All Scripture is profitable for teaching. What about that one? Can't we just glean some truths from the Sermon on the Mount?

That's basically it. You begin to look at the character of God. you glean things out of it, but it is not applicable to us. And a lot of people want to do that, covenant and want to apply everything of Israel to us in the body of Christ. They want to apply all that, and that's not for us. So it's critical to understand who the message is for.

And if you don't understand that, you can misapply Scripture. Like I said, the Sermon on the Mount has been, I think, misapplied many times. This one is the same thing. When you look at this, he's talking to a Pharisee, a Jewish leader. That's who he's talking about. And so when he's talking about the kingdom, what is he talking about? When he says about the kingdom of God, what's he talking about? The millennial kingdom? How many of you think it's the millennial kingdom? How many of you are chickens? As Mike would say. Come on, another thought. Isn't he talking about himself? Talking about himself. Other thoughts.

Kingdom of God. Could he be referring to the heavenly kingdom? Because to be in the heavenly kingdom you have to be born into it. Okay, kingdom of heaven. That being equivalent to the kingdom of heaven, as referred to in Matthew. You're asking, okay. Any other thoughts?

Well, he said he cannot see the kingdom of God. So, does that negate that it's him? No. Because he's standing right there. Because they wouldn't recognize him for who he is. Unless they are born again and then they realize, oh, I'm born into him. And they see him for then come from the inside out.

A natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God. So you're not having a spiritual understanding. You don't know who Christ is. You don't know anything that's really spiritual. So when he's referring here to Kingdom of God, what is that? Really, himself. I mean, you know, and in true spirituality. But the Spirit hadn't come yet. But there was a spiritual knowledge of scriptures that the Old Testament saints had, and some knowledge of it. They didn't have knowledge that things pointed to Christ, but this is a critical point here as far as what this is referring to.

This is referring to the Kingdom of God, which is equal to the Kingdom of Heaven, which in Matthew Matthew is written to who? The Jews? They referred to it, instead of Kingdom of God, they referred to it as Kingdom of Heaven. Why? Because they have the reverence of God's name. So when you look at Matthew, Matthew is the only one that uses the term Kingdom of Heaven. He uses it 32 times. And it's the Kingdom of Heaven, not Kingdom of God. But they're synonymous. Kingdom of God, Kingdom of Heaven, the Millennial Kingdom. It's talking about an earthly kingdom.

That's what the Jews knew. That's all the Old Testament. The Spirit had not come. All they knew was the Old Testament pointing to the kingdom of God, which is an earthly kingdom, the millennial kingdom. So that's what he's referring to here about born again. But in the Old Testament, it said the same thing. And that's why he said, well, I get ahead of myself a little bit about whether he's rebuking him or not, and whether we should have known about this. He should have known. He should have known. You know, just to go back a little bit, the audiences too.

I think Bernie put something together a while ago about Matthew was written to the Jews, Mark to the Romans, Luke to the Greeks, and John to everybody. So when you look at those things, look at them with that flavor or that direction. You know, in Matthew, like I said, it's very clear it's to the Jews. You know, the other thing, and I want to step back a little bit, One of the things that I really kind of, until we started this study, I hadn't even thought about, when was this book written?

I think 1990, isn't that what they said? Yeah, somewhere in there. It's probably written in front of you. It's 1980 or, so when is that? When is that? After 70. I could say that was blatantly obvious. It's a long time after this happened, but more importantly, what really changed me a little bit, when were the epistles written? From Paul? Earlier. You know, and it's kind of like, what?

No, these Gospels were written in the... No, John was written later. And when you get that, you know, I look at it and it suddenly, you know, it made a lot more sense to me because in John you get much more of Christ presented in his deity. It's presenting him as God. Why did that versus all the other ones? Well, Jews, you know, you had that which was signs, you know, a lot of things in the Jews, they required signs, that's in Matthew, and then, you know, the Greeks and the Romans in the other Gospels, but now this one's to everybody, and this is after Paul's epistles.

Well, you're getting all the things that Paul had written about, and now John. Well, why did John focus on God as, or, I mean, Jesus as God? You know, I think in order, you know, all of Paul's epistles is saying, no, I was there, he is the Son of God. All these things that Paul wrote about, he's just verifying that Jesus was God. Fully man and fully God. And so when you read, you know, I think John is writing to say, after all of Paul's epistles, he's going, hey, I was there, he is the Son of God. He is God, full deity.

Well that's what you have to believe in order to be saved. And that's, yeah. And so I think that's why, you know, it really started to make sense when I started studying this. It's like, well yeah, I'd always known that John was focusing more on the deity, but until, you know, we started doing this and it was like, oh, that was written after Paul's epistles. Well now it makes sense. Because that is, you know, verifying all of, you know, basically Paul's not verifying, but reinforcing you know, what Paul wrote about, Jesus was the Son of God, fully man, fully God. So adding kind of credence to all of what Paul's epistles are.

So it's kind of like, oh, that's why this is different, I think, than all the rest. And so he's writing it to everybody at this point. Well, he probably more fully understood it. I mean, it's kind of like the Monday morning quarterback version. Well, yeah, and going through Pentecost and the Spirit and all the things, they didn't understand half the stuff when they were with Jesus. He said, these things I've written you will understand later. And after Pentecost, because now they have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, yeah, it becomes clear. And I think, like I said, this just backs up all of Paul's epistles.

And that's why he focuses on the deity part. Getting back to the kingdom, again this is earthly. What he's talking about when he references the kingdom, this is reference to the Millennial Kingdom in which the Jews were looking for the Messiah to rule and reign as king. Therefore this reference was for Nicodemus as a Jew looking to entrance into the Millennial Kingdom. So, let's go on.

In verse 6, who are those that are born of flesh, and who are those born of the spirit? John 3, 6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. So what does born of the flesh imply? Physical birth? Old sin nature? Flesh! The old flesh. So, that which is born of flesh is what? Flesh! Okay?

So, what does born of the spirit imply? That one has been regenerated. The one that is regenerated now is of spirit, not of flesh. Through the Spirit there is communication of a new life which is of the Spirit. New creatures in Christ, we are of the Spirit. The old flesh versus the new creation in Christ. Like what Harry Einstein says, what Jesus is saying here is that you can do anything you like with the flesh, but it is not turning into Spirit.

If you baptize it, It's baptized flesh. If you make it religious, it is religious flesh. How many times, as we went through the identification truths, and Mike and I talk quite a bit, the identification truths, you need to know the identification truths first. Because if you don't understand the identification truths, you're in the old Adam fix-up club.

You're going to try and fix the old flesh up. You're going to try and baptize it. You're going to try and make it spiritual. You're going to try and make it better. And a lot of people say, or think, that once we now have the indwelling of the spirit, our flesh can now do all those great things. Is that true? By the indwelling, our flesh can do anything better?

Nada. Come to the identification class, please. There is nothing good in the flesh. Zip, zero, nada. In the identification class, we go through about three or four weeks of showing what a beautiful creature the Adamic flesh is. There is deceitful, wicked, above all. Find a good reference about the flesh. Is there one that says it's a wonderful thing? Now, everything taught about the flesh is, it is wicked above all. It is deceitful. It is terrible. It is at enmity with God. Everything that you can think of bad, that is what's in the flesh.

So, in order to do that, we don't have the indwelling of the spirit to fix up the old flesh. What we have in the identification is our identification in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. The old man, the best thing, as Mike says, is to crucify it. That's the best thing that could ever happen to you, is crucify the old man. Dead. Separated from that line of humanity.

Rebirth. Regeneration. New in kind. New creatures in Christ. We are now regenerated. We are a new creature. Totally new. Nothing like anything before in Christ. And we're identified in Christ. So everything that's true about him, minus the deity, is true about us. It's like everything about Adam, we were in that line, all the battles, sin, whatever. Now we have severed that through our co-crucifixion, Romans 6, and now we are in Christ.

Could Nicodemus have been in Christ at this point in time? No. Was the Spirit given at this point? No. So what does it mean in Nicodemus? We'll get into this right now in the next one. In verses 7 and 10, does Jesus rebuke Nicodemus? Should Nicodemus have known about being born again? What was his problem?

In John 3.7, Christ says, Do not be amazed that I said to you, You must be born again.

And 3.10, Jesus answered and said to him, Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?

Also, there's some other further review in verse 11, I believe it is. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? So he's kind of jumping on, I think he's rebuking Academus. And he should have known about being born again from Old Testament passages, from the verse 12 passage. I think that Jesus is clearly stating that what he has revealed about earthly things, the kingdom on earth, the millennial kingdom, and Nicodemus did not understand. Jesus said, if you didn't understand that, how will you be able to understand what I'm going to reveal about heavenly things, which he was about to do in the gospel message, which is coming up in 316. So he's basically rebuking him. You see, you don't even know about the earthly kingdom and all the Old Testament passages that talk about rebirth for the Jew to enter into the millennial kingdom.

You've got to understand too, and we'll get into this a little bit too, this is kind of a big thumper for Nicodemus. There are a lot of things happening to Nicodemus right now that we can't appreciate. And we'll get into that a little bit later. But as a Jew, I mean, this is a left hook and a right hook and an uppercut all at the same time. And so he's going, huh?

We'll look in and I'll read one of the things from Isaiah 43, 3 and 4. For I will pour out water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground. I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessings on your descendants. And they will spring up among the grass like poplars by the streams of water." That was one reference in the Old Testament. Then the Ezekiel passage, Ezekiel 36, 25 through 28.

Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse from you I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will be careful to observe my ordinances, and you will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers, that you will be my people and I will be your God.

Again, this is kingdom based for the Jews. But it shows that there is a new birth, a new heart, as shown the water and the spirit used for the rebirth. So Nicodemus had this. He had that they were going to receive a new heart. And he knew about the spirit would direct him. So this is for entrance into the earthly kingdom, the millennial. So this is kind of a kook. What happened to Nicodemus? He's going, whoa. I'm a Jew. Don't I just walk in? I'm a Jew. I'm a chosen... Don't I just... No. So he's getting a little left hook here.

It's saying, you know, you have to be reborn in the spirit to get into the kingdom on earth. This is again the earthly kingdom. Remember the audience. So he was confused that there was more than being of Jewish blood for entering the Millennial Kingdom.

He thought that all he needed to be was a Jew to enter the Kingdom. Now there were more requirements. This is echoed much more in Matthew's Gospel, in the Sermon on the Mount, and all these requirements now, and things that were going on. He's going, I just had to be a Jew, and especially a religious leader. I'd just walk into the Millennial Kingdom. the Messiah is going to come and we walk in.

He's getting whacked here. It's a different thing now that what he has been thought to believe was just being Jewish was the way to enter the kingdom. Okay. All right. So then we're moving into a little bit different now, which is now we've had the left hook on him. Now we're going to deliver the right hook for him.

From verse 8, why does Jesus make reference to the wind when talking about the Holy Spirit? What does this speak of the Holy Spirit? So in 8, the wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from and where it's going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. So what does this say? I mean, is this a good analogy of the Holy Spirit? Why? It's an allegory. How? Once it comes, it's there, but it's there. You know, I see it, and it's just like today. What a beautiful example for today.

As I was driving in, my car was being buffeted on E-470, getting hit by this invisible force that was pushing all the snow and everything across. You know, you can't see it, but it is there. It's a powerful force, and it can't be controlled. and it definitely works powerfully. So the analogy is great. I think he says it can't be controlled. It demonstrates a reality. It's a reality that you can't see.

I think one of the commentators had a thing where you can see in the Holy Spirit working in people. You have the gospel ministry of two people sitting at a table. And one goes, eh, reject. The other one goes, oh, this makes sense. And you can see the Holy Spirit working on a person.

You can't see it. I mean, you can't see the Holy Spirit, but you know the effect of it. You know the effect on your own self. I know when you're walking in the Spirit versus walking in the flesh. It's like I was saying on the scripture. I love going through this scripture.

When we get to John 3.16, there are a lot of things that opened up that I hadn't even thought about.

Every baseball game, every football game, John 3.16, everybody knows that. As I read it again and studied this, there were some really cool things in it that I hadn't seen before.

That's the Holy Spirit working on the living word here. You know, so I mean, I see the Holy Spirit work. I mean, I know the Holy Spirit. I can't see him, but I know he works. So again, a great analogy for the wind as a metaphor for the Spirit. All right.

Now, what was the significance to Nicodemus and the Jews when Jesus said, so is everyone who is born of the Spirit? That was the right hook, or the left hook, or the uppercut. What did he just tell Nicodemus? He said, you didn't buy anything. Well, now I didn't buy anything, but everyone, whoever, everyone. Hey, wait a minute, wait a minute. Nicodemus is going, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Jews, Jews, no. Everyone, everyone. He now opened it up to everyone.

So they were not the only ones to be born again. That is why in verse 9, Nicodemus exclaims, How can these things be? He's just been told that being a Jew wasn't good enough to enter into the Millennial Kingdom, and now he's told that the Spirit could come to anyone, Jew or Gentile. You know, again, I don't think we get enough understanding what this meant to a Jew and a Jewish leader.

He just said everyone. You know, the Jews, you know Samaria? What Jews would walk around, you know, if you had to go from here to here and Samaria was in the middle, you didn't even go through Samaria. Why? Because that was where kind of the half breeds were. Jews that had mingled with other religious and other people. So they weren't pure Jews. So the Jews would go all the way around Samaria because they didn't want to be with these Samaritans.

I think of, we're studying Acts on Tuesday. And, you know, I think when Peter gets the vision, you know, I think it was a lot of, I, you know, we don't get an understanding of this. You know, Peter gets his vision of, you know, all these animals coming down in the sheet and all this stuff, four times a vision or whatever, and all these unclean animals. And then the vision is, well, you know, God can make clean and, I mean, we can eat these animals.

And then it was not only that, head off to old Cornelius there, this Gentile and all this, head off to his house and spend the night. Jews did not do that. You didn't just go over, you know, if you had a friend who was a Gentile, you didn't go over for the night, have dinner and, you know, cordial night. That was not, I mean, you did not associate with the Gentiles.

So when Nicodemus gets this, he's saying everyone is, everyone, everyone. No, no, no, no. Let's clarify that. You didn't mean everyone, did you? Yeah. And we'll get more of that as we get into the gospel here. You know, Darby put it this way, Nicodemus was able not to see perhaps the order of this, but that it was wholly beyond the associations which he had formed as a Jew. His mind was at a loss. How can these things be? Not merely in their spiritual character, but in the breach that they made in Jewish feelings.

The immense change necessary for even a Jew to be admitted into the kingdom, which he'd just been told, you don't now, you have to be born again in the spirit, to enter the millennial kingdom. and the principles in measure involved in it, though the results of them were not fully measured, doubtless, in a way obscure." So, I mean, he basically, he's getting a lot of information here, and that's when he exclaims, how can these be?

You know, what do you mean being reborn? You know, he didn't know about the rebirth. Jesus points it out, and then he goes, not only that, but everyone's able to come into a relationship with Christ? Well, basically have eternal life, is what he's talking about. And so, you know, it's like, whoa, he is getting pounded right here.

All right, now this is kind of one that a couple of different answers to. In verse 11, who are the we referred to? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of that which we know and testify of what we have seen and you do not accept our testimony. Who's the we? That sounds like the Trinity, doesn't it? Trinity? Any others?

There are a couple different thoughts on this. Another possibility was that he was speaking of the disciples who were with him, including him and we. But since he'd been speaking of the spirit, The other one possibly is John the Baptist and he, speaking of these things, prophets. He had spoken of that, and we're getting towards the end of John the Baptist's ministry. From Matthew Henry's commentary, he says this, Some understand it of those that bore witness to him, and with him on earth, the prophets and John the Baptist. They spoke what they knew and seen, and were themselves abundantly satisfied in. Divine revelation carries its own proof along with it. Others of those that bore witness from heaven, the Father and the Holy Ghost, and the Father was with him, and the Spirit of the Lord was upon him.

Therefore, he speaks in the plural number." You know, John the Baptist, the prophets, or the Trinity. Mike had indicated when he did it, the we is Christ himself and John the Baptist. He said that the plural was used since it took two to verify a truth under the Mosaic law. So that's why he opts for John the Baptist and Christ to satisfy the Mosaic law requirement of two witnesses to verify. You know, and I don't know whether it speaks of the Trinity as plural or as John the Baptist or prophets or what it already had been told. All right. Eight, read verse 13. What are some of the significant points from this verse? John 3, 13. That's first, right? Okay.

John 3.13, no one has ascended into heaven but he who is descended from heaven, the son of man. So what is the significance of no one has ascended into heaven? Yeah, no man has stepped into heaven. Wasn't there one guy in the Old Testament? There were two that were taken up in a whirlwind. into heaven or were they just taken up?

I did see some commentaries that said, well, I don't know. Well, whether that's into heaven or where they were taken up to. But I think when you get into the following part of this one, which is, but he who descended from heaven and the Anthropos, the man, In the first part, Matthew Henry says, none but Christ was able to reveal to us the will of God for our salvation. Nicodemus addressed Christ as a prophet, but he must know that he is greater than all the Old Testament prophets.

For none of them had ascended into heaven. They wrote by divine inspiration and not of their own knowledge. Moses ascended into the mountain, but not into heaven. No man hath attained to the certain knowledge of God and heavenly things as Christ has.

And the Son of Man, see now this is again a very important part, the Son of Man, He was in heaven. So when you get to the but has descended, the Son of Man has descended from heaven. So the cool part of that is when you look at Christ, fully man, fully God. Who has a better understanding of man and the Trinity and God? Who's the one who has ascended into heaven and has descended from heaven? So he has the intimate relationship with the Trinity. God the Father, the Spirit, and him for all eternity.

So, I mean, this is kind of a cool thing. He's now saying, you know, the Son of Man has ascended from heaven, he is now descended. He now can identify everything and speak, not as a divine inspiration, but an eyewitness to his relationship in heaven with God, God the Father and the Spirit. It wasn't by divine inspiration. It was, hey, I was there. In court, you always want an eyewitness. You don't want a hearsay or whatever. You know, this is different than divine inspiration. This is eyewitness.

So this is another one that Nicodemus, at this point, has got to be going, oh, wow, what is going on here? No one's ascended into heaven, but now descended the Son of Man, and Christ is speaking? You know, he's got, as he said, he knew he was a prophet, but now he said, you did what? You ascended to heaven and descended from heaven? What do you think Nicodemus is going on in his head? I mean, what?

He's claiming to be God. He's claiming to be God. He knows it now. I mean, he's not, there's unequivocally. You know, I look at it as like, you know, let's pound on old Nicodemus. It's like pounding on Peter all the time. You know, oh, it's crazy. You know, I'm denying all this.

Jump in his shoes. You know, Nicodemus is a Jewish leader. He has all this. He's now been told everybody's in there, and now, This man is saying he is descended from heaven. As a son of man. Eyewitness. What would you be doing? I mean, I'd be reeling at that point. He now said, not only divine inspiration, he saw. He was there. He was in heaven and now came down. So there is, when you first get at Nicodemus, and you start beating him up. Put yourself in his place. As a Jew, first. Then even just as us.

Think of what he's getting rocked at right now. He's getting about 20 different things that completely upset his world. How can these things be? We will get the last ones next week. And that's really the cool part. When you look at the Gospel message, there's a lot of neat things in there. I picked up something from Harry Ironside, and it's the greatest text ever.

You can say it by rote, John 3.16, blah blah blah, God for God's love, blah blah blah, see it at football games, see it everywhere. But, take a look at it again next week. Look at what's in there. You know, from a different perspective, take a look at it and see all that's in those verses. It's the gospel message, but the intimacy and all the different things that are involved in that is really cool.

Really cool. All right, let's close. Heavenly Father, we thank you for today. Thanks for this day and every day. Thanks, Lord, just that we have your word and your indwelling spirit. We just thank you just for what an awesome God you are, an intimate God. We thank you that we can come before you so boldly and we just pray that you'll be honored and glorified by all that we do this day. And Father, we just thank you in Jesus name. Amen.