Asking Good Questions with Nick
We have the great privilege of training churches and their leaders around the Mediterranean basin in how to read and proclaim God’s word with God’s heart. One of the tools we use is called: “Asking Good Questions.” Asking good questions of the text leads us down the path of discovering the author’s intent.
In the Gospel of John 3:1-21, we read a story about an encounter between Jesus and a religious teacher named Nicodemus. The conversation they have is full of questions. Nicodemus asks questions, but they aren’t really the right questions. Jesus insists on answering and asking the right questions in order to lead Nicodemus down the path of heart-transformation.
I want to walk through John 3:1-21 and ask the Spirit to do the same transformation in our hearts by asking three questions – the questions Jesus seems to be answering in this text:
Where were you born? (John 3:1-8)
What do you believe? (John 3:9-18)
Who do you love? (John 3:19-21)
1) Where were you born?
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter 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 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:1-8)
Look at verses 1-2. Who do we find there? “a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.” So, what is a Pharisee? They were a religious sect among the Jews with political influence. Paul was a Pharisee (Acts 23:6-8 26:4,5) and he described them as “the strictest party of our religion.” But in the end, their strict religion became nothing but legalism and immorality (Matthew 5:20; 15:4,8; 23:3, 14, 23, 25; Mark 7:1-23 [See blog post: Are You Staying on the Line?] and Joh 8:7). Because of their self-righteousness and pride (Matthew 9:11; Luke 7:39; 18:11,12) Jesus often rebuked them (Matthew 12:39; 16:1-4).
From the very beginning of his ministry the Pharisees were enemies of Jesus. This means Nicodemus was a member of the party of Jesus’ greatest critics. So, we are surprised to see Nick come to Jesus in the way he did: seeking him out and with a heart that really seems to be open to his teaching.
But why does he come “by night”? In John 1:19-28, the Pharisee delegation who went to question John the Baptist went in broad daylight. But Nick is not coming as an official delegation. He is coming personally to make sense of the questions in his head and his heart that he can’t seem to answer: “If God were not with this man how could he do the signs he’s doing?” Nick comes to Jesus, when no one is looking, to find an answer to this question. And he comes with an open heart. He calls Jesus “Rabbi.” So, even if he comes secretly, Nicodemus comes respectfully – acknowledging Jesus to be a teacher from God.
“…if Jesus was from God, then, what he said and taught must be true... And the truth Jesus taught teaches us who we are in relationship to God.”
And Nick starts by sharing what’s on his heart. “Jesus, we’ve been discussing who you must be – and because of ‘these signs’ you do, you must be from God.” The news of Jesus’ “signs” was spreading. According to John 2:23-25, Jesus’ followers were beginning to increase in number. For Nick Jesus’ miracles have raised questions about who Jesus is. And who Jesus is was important for him to understand his own relationship to God.
Jesus’ miracles caused people to believe in Jesus’ name (John 2:23-25). Jesus’ miracles forced people to realize that Jesus was doing what only God could do and therefore He must be from God. And if Jesus was from God, then, what he said and taught must be true too. And the truth Jesus taught teaches us who we are in relationship to God.
Where were you born? Jesus taught Nick that we were all born in the wrong place. In verse 3 Jesus says: "Truly truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." But notice: is this what Nick asked? Actually, Nic didn’t ask a question at all. He just confessed he believed that Jesus must be a teacher sent from God.
Even though NicK didn’t ask a question, Jesus is telling Nic the answer to the question he should have asked! Nic is naturally confused and responds with a wrong question in verse 4 "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" Nicodemus is only hearing Jesus on an earthly level and Jesus is revealing to him things on a heavenly level. I think that sometimes happens with us.
So, Jesus says that if anyone wants to enter the Kingdom of God he has to be born of “water and Spirit.” (verse 5 , cf. Ezekiel 36:25). And then he says “What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (verse 6) The question Nicodemus should be asking is this: “Where was I born?”
Jesus is pressing this question: Which kingdom were you naturally born into (when you were born “of water” and “of the flesh”)? Jesus is telling Nick we were all naturally born outside the Kingdom of God. And in order to enter God’s Kingdom, we have to be born with the kind of birth that leads to life in God’s kingdom. We must be re-born by the power of the Spirit. Simply being born once “of the flesh” won’t give you eternal life. You must be born of the eternal Spirit of God in order to enter the eternal kingdom of God.
This would have been extremely difficult for Nick to hear. As a Pharisee he would have believed he was already in God’s kingdom just because he was born naturally into the nation of Israel. But Jesus here challenges Nick’s most basic assumptions about God’s kingdom. This isn’t just for Pharisees. This is true for the whole world. Everyone in the world is called to be “born again.”
Do you see Jesus’ heart of mercy? Jesus has met Nicodemus’ curiosity and open heart with the mercy of telling him the difficult truth. John said earlier in chapter 1:12-13 that to be born again into God’s kingdom and be given “the right to become a child of God” is not to be born, “of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
Here Jesus also says it’s ultimately up to God. He compares the Spirit to the wind in verse 8 “it blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So, it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Wind is a very powerful thing. But you can’t see it. You can only see what it does. This is how the Spirit works. This new birth is not a birth you can see with your eyes. But it is just as real as your first birth. As a Pharisee, Nicodemus thought entering the Kingdom of God depends on being born a Jew. But Jesus says, in order to enter the Kingdom of God, you must be born by the power of the Spirit!
Where were you born? I know everyone reading this blog has been born “of the flesh.” But have you been re-born according to the will of God by the Spirit into God’s eternal kingdom? This is life’s most important question. Just because you were born into a religious family, you might think that you are automatically entered in to the Kingdom of God. But by our natural birth, we do not have a life that will last forever.
Please read this carefully: Jesus told a strict religious Jew who was a scholar in the Old Testament Law that he needed to be born again. So, do you! So do I! Each of us must experience being born again by God’s Spirit. Have you experienced that? Being religious all your life does not give you eternal life. Giving away your money or doing good deeds does not give you eyes to see the Kingdom of God. In order to enter God’s everlasting Kingdom we have to be born into that everlasting Kingdom.
Which Kingdom were you born into? Have you been born a second time by the Holy Spirit into God’s Kingdom? Or do you still only live in the old kingdom? How can you be born again? This was Nick question in verse 4, and in verse 9 when he asks: “How can these things be?” And, once again, Jesus leads Nicodemus to ask the right question.
2) What do you believe?
Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? 11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. (John 3:9-18)
In verse 10 Jesus asks: If Nicodemus is a teacher in Israel, why doesn’t he know these most basic things about God’s Kingdom? If Nicodemus didn’t understand Jesus’ earthly illustrations, how is he going to grasp the heavenly realities? Then Jesus tells Nicodemus something about himself that he will repeat throughout his ministry. Jesus is the “Son of Man.” On the surface this phrase seems obvious enough. What man isn’t a son of a man? But this is not just an ordinary description. The “Son of Man” refers to a specific title from the prophet Daniel in chapter 7.
In Daniel 7 the Son of Man is a figure in Daniel’s vision of heaven who approaches the throne of God, the Ancient of Days, and receives an eternal Kingdom. So, calling himself by this title, Jesus is saying he is the Son of Man from Daniel’s vision who receives an eternal kingdom from God the Father, and that he himself is an eye-witness to this event in the eternal Kingdom of the Ancient of Days!
John, the author, tells us he has reported what he has witnessed Jesus doing. But Jesus has also witnessed what he has seen his Father doing. The authority of Jesus’ witness then, is infinitely greater that the witness of anyone else because of where he comes from.
So far Nicodemus believes Jesus is from God because of the miracles he’s seen. But will he believe what Jesus teaches him about the Kingdom of God, because he’s the only one who comes down from that Kingdom as an eye-witness?
Knowing Nicodemus is a teacher of the Scriptures, in verse 14 Jesus uses a story from scripture to explain “How one can be born again.” And it has to do with this question: “What do you believe?” in verses 14-16. Jesus said: “…as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,” and that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. Why? Because God loved the world in this way: “that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”.
“The snake on the pole was God’s provision of salvation from his own judgment…Jesus completes this story.”
This story of Moses is from the Old Testament book of Numbers chapter 21. There we read about the people of ancient Israel who were wandering for 40 years in the wilderness due to their unbelief. But in his mercy, God promised to be with them and to provide for them. Yet over and over again, they became impatient and complained about the very things God was providing.
At one point they cried out at Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” (Numbers 21:5) This brought God’s judgment in the form of venomous fiery serpents that bit them.
When they were about to die from being bitten, they repented and called out to Moses to pray for them. So, again in his mercy, the Lord told Moses to raise up a bronze serpent on a pole. And when anyone was bitten, they could simply look at the bronze serpent and they would be miraculously healed.
If you think about it, the fiery serpents themselves, were really a mercy from God. The serpents made the people face death which woke them up to their need for God and cry out to God for deliverance. When the people looked in faith to the bronze serpent they were healed and rescued from their death sentence. The snake on the pole was God’s provision of salvation from his own judgment!
What was Jesus telling Nick that night? Jesus was telling him that it is Jesus who completes this story. The serpent on the pole in the wilderness healed the people from the deadly venom. But they would go on to die another day. Every time God delivered his people in the Old Testament, he called his people to put their faith in him: the One who provides the deliverance.
This is true of the bronze serpent, the Passover lamb, and all the temple sacrifices. But from the days of Moses, most of God’s people didn’t understand what it meant to enter God’s Kingdom. To enter God’s kingdom, God must awaken you to your desperate sinful situation: that you were born into a kingdom of sin and death. And if you are awakened to see that, then you must look in faith to the way of deliverance God provides. And the final way of deliverance God has provided is Jesus.
Jesus says this is how God loved the world: He lifted up the Son of Man like that bronze serpent in the wilderness. He lifted up his own Son upon the cross. When you look to Jesus raised up on the cross for your sins, in faith, you will not die an eternal death. Instead, you will be “born again” to the kingdom of eternal life.
The question for us, as it was for Nick, is: Do you believe this? Have you looked to Jesus lifted up on the cross for deliverance from your sin? Or do you still look to other things in the kingdom of this world for deliverance? How do you know if you are truly believing in Jesus for deliverance? The answer to our last question will be the proof:
3) Who do you love?
And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God.” (John 3:19-21)
Do you love the Light or do you love the darkness? (verses 19-21) In verse 17 we are told that God did not send Jesus into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world. But verses 19-20 show us that by his very presence, Jesus exposes those who love their sin more than Him.
In John 1:4-5, John calls Jesus, the “Light and Life of men and that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” When Light shines into a dark place it dispels the darkness and exposes what is in the darkness. Jesus, is the incarnation of God’s word, glory, holiness, righteousness, and everlasting love. When Jesus, the Light and Life of men, entered the darkness of this world His very appearance exposed people’s sin. Like the fiery serpents in the wilderness, the Light of Jesus awakens people to their sin. But Jesus on the cross is God’s provision of salvation from his own judgment!
“Who do you love? Has Jesus’ light shone into the dark places of your heart? Do you love the Light?”
Exposure of our sin is uncomfortable. It is even painful. People who are not born again by the Spirit, hate it. Having their sin exposed terrifies them. The Light reveals the lies they tell themselves to justify their sin. The light ruins their plans to lie, cheat, and steal their way through life. So, they hate the light and love the darkness. No one needs to judge them. They show that they are condemned already by what they love: the darkness. But people who have been born again by the Spirit love the Light because in the end, even though it is painful, they know the only way to overcome sin is to have it exposed by Jesus – it is mercy and Love from God.
Who do you love? Has Jesus’ light shone into the dark places of your heart? Do you love the Light? If you have been re-born into God’s kingdom of eternal life, then you will love it.
“We simply believe in Jesus out loud.“
And, this Light will be seen in you. Verse 21 finishes with: “But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God.” So, doing what is true, doing good and righteous things, are born out of a heart that has been re-born and transformed by the Light of Jesus. Shining the Light of Jesus by doing what is good and true, shows that we have been born again.
This is a powerful witness. We don’t need to go around condemning everyone (Jesus himself was not sent to condemn the world). We simply believe in Jesus out loud. We proclaim God’s love which lifted Jesus up on the cross for our sake. And when people see and hear “these deeds carried out in God,” the Light of Jesus may shine on their hearts too, so they can see that they have been living in the kingdom of sin and darkness. And as the Spirit reawakens their hearts, they will look in faith to Jesus, the one God raised up for their deliverance.
This conversation with Jesus turned Nicodemus’ world upside-down. He came into the conversation that night thinking that being born a Jew and keeping the strictest traditions was the way to enter God’s Kingdom. But it turns out that it is God’s Kingdom of Jesus’ light that must enter him, and shine forth through Jesus’ good works!
Does this turn your world upside down? Does this get you asking new questions? We pray you will have answers to these Good Questions:
