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December 18, 2024 |
| The Nicodemus Teachings | ||
Nicodemus is given very little coverage in the Bible, appearing only in the Gospel of John. He does appear at multiple points in Jesus' ministry. Through those we see an evolution in him.
Because he is a Pharisee and a leader, Jesus expects a deep level of understanding from him. At their first meeting, Jesus challenges him with very difficult teachings.
Even most Christians don't fully understand what Jesus is saying in these teachings, despite having the advantage of hindsight. That makes this a valuable study.
One man of the Pharisees was living there; his name was Nicodemus. He was a leader of the Judeans. (John 3:1)
This introduces us to Nicodemus. He was both a Pharisee and a leader of the observant Jews. We know this from the way "Judeans" is used in other places. This meant he was a leader of almost all of the people.
We are being told this because Jesus is going to test him with very hard teachings.
This man came to Yeshua at night and said to him: "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher sent from God, for no man is able to do these miracles that you are doing unless God were with him." (John 3:2)
Nicodemus pays Jesus a compliment. What he says can't be true of all the Pharisees and leaders. It does tell us there was a split among their ranks.
Yeshua answered and said to him: "Amen, Amen [Timeless truth I am telling you]: If a person is not born again, it is impossible for that one to see the Kingdom of God." 4 Nicodemus said to him: "How can an old man be born? Is it not impossible for him again to enter his mother's womb a second time and be born?" 5 Yeshua answered and said to him: "Timeless truth I am telling you: "If a person is not born from water and the Spirit, it is impossible that he shall enter the Kingdom of God. (John 3:3-5)
The word "Again" literally means "From the top". This implies restarting a process, a nuance that is lost in English.
Jesus isn't teaching Nicodemus to be born again. Just as Nicodemus had nothing to do with his own birth, Nicodemus cannot rebirth himself. Jesus was telling Nicodemus that he is missing something.
We often think of being born again as a Christian phenomenon, but Jesus was expecting it of all people, including Jews. If it was only for Christians then no Jew would "see the Kingdom of God". It was different under the Old Covenant though. People needed to keep themselves clean and they needed to grow in their understanding of God, solely from reading the scripture, hearing it taught by priests and others, and hearing the word of God from prophets, when those were available.
Jesus says Nicodemus must be "born again." This confuses Nicodemus because he isn't thinking spiritually and maybe can't. At that time Judaism was entirely focused on living a physical life, as it is today. So Jesus breaks down "born again" into two parts "born from both water and the Spirit."
The person "born from water" is clean in a way that is acceptable to God. This is discussed in a separate section below so as not to break the continuity of Jesus' teaching of Nicodemus.
The person born from the spirit is a new person, as far as God is concerned. This change from fleshly person to spiritual person is commonly called regeneration. Depending on your Bible translation, the word "regeneration" may appear in some verses.
In the New Covenant, both of these are the activity of the Holy Spirit. Many people think "born from water" refers to baptism, but it doesn't. It refers to an initial and ongoing cleansing that the Holy Spirit performs. The phrase "born from the Spirit" refers to the initial and ongoing regeneration the Holy Spirit does.
That which is born from flesh is flesh, and that which is born from the Spirit is spirit. (John 3:6)
Jesus is telling Nicodemus that there are two different aspects to a person, flesh and spirit. As everyone knows, flesh gives birth to flesh. But the Spirit gives spiritual rebirth to people of flesh to become people of spirit.
Jesus is also drawing a parallel between physical birth and spiritual birth. Just as a new-born infant (flesh) starts with no knowledge of anything, a reborn person (spirit) starts over, as if with nothing. This implies that everything you learned as a fleshly person becomes worthless and you have to begin learning about the real world.
Do not be surprised that I said to you that all of you must be born again. 8 The Spirit breathes where he will, and you hear his voice, but you do not know from where he comes and where he goes; thus is everyone who is born from the Spirit. (John 3:7-8)
Jesus gives Nicodemus a sentence that can be understood in two ways, flesh and spirit. The English translation can't have that same quality, so it is translated in the spirit sense.
Our Lord used three words with double meanings: Rukha (Spirit or Wind), Nshaba (Breathe or Blow) and Qala (Voice or Sound). The verse could be translated, "The wind blows where it will and you hear its sound …", but He obviously speaks in spiritual terms here. [] It is understandable that Nicodemus was confused by this statement. (Translator's commentary)
The meaning behind it is that the experience of the spirit-born is that the Holy Spirit guides whomever he wants, and the hearer hears but the hearer does not know why or what the Spirit is up to.
Nicodemus is confused
Nicodemus answered and said to him, "How can these things be?" 10 Yeshua answered and said to him: "You are the teacher of Israel and you do not know these things? (John 3:9-10)
Unfortunately, Jesus' words can also be applied to most of Christianity today.
Jesus' purpose here has two parts:
Amen, Amen [Timeless truth I speak to you]: the one things that We know We are speaking and the things that We see We are testifying, and Our testimony all of you do not accept. 12 If I have told all of you that which is in the earth and you are not believing, how shall you believe me if I tell you that which is in Heaven? (John 3:11-12)
Jesus implies that, since you live on the earth, the earthly things Jesus teaches are difficult for Nicodemus (and us) to understand, but still within our grasp. If we do not understand those, we have no chance of understanding the Heavenly things.
Jesus uses plural pronouns in the first of these verses. He is teaching that God is a plurality. In previous times the Jews had understood that but in Jesus' time they considered God to be a singular being. Jesus is also introducing the idea that he, Jesus, is part of that plural being. He'll continue with that immediately.
And no man has gone up to Heaven except he who went down from Heaven: the son of Man - he who is in Heaven. (John 3:13)
Nicodemus isn't the only one confused by these words. There are disagreements in our time about what Jesus is saying here. The truth is that almost no one understands what Jesus is trying to say here. There are two problems:
The words "is in Heaven" could also be translated "is of Heaven", but it works either way. Jesus is hinting that he, the son of Man, has a place in Heaven.
Because of the past tense in Jesus' words "went down from Heaven" we would naturally assume he is referring to his own birth. But that leaves the question, when in Jesus' past did Jesus ascend to Heaven. No such event is known. The order of these events is also a problem. We would expect them to occur in the order in the text, for the ascent to happen before the decent.
The explanation for the past tense verbs begins with understanding that Jesus is referring to this verse:
Who has ascended into heaven and descended? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has wrapped the waters in His garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name? And what is His Son's name? Surely you know! (Proverbs 30:4)
Surely Nicodemus does not know "his son's name". But Jesus knows that Nicodemus knows this verse. Nicodemus should be able to recognize the verse and get Jesus' point, though maybe not right away.
To us, from the reference to "God's son", this is plainly a messianic prophecy. The translator has even signaled it to us by capitalizing "Son's". It wasn't so clear before Jesus. The word "son" in Hebrew and Aramaic could refer to other relationships other than father - son.
Notice that the Proverbs verse is also past tense. The reason Jesus is speaking in past tense is that he has retained the past tense of the Proverbs verse, probably to make his words more recognizable to Nicodemus.
But that just moves the "when" problem from Jesus to Proverbs. At the time Proverbs was written, Jesus had neither gone up nor come down. What's going on?
The Proverbs verse is using Past Prophetic verb tense. This is never used anywhere but in the Bible. Most people have never heard of it. The Past Prophetic tense uses past tense verbs to refer to the future. It seems to say, "I caused all of this to happen back at creation."
Therefore, if Jesus is using the Past Prophetic verb tense for both ascending and descending, both events are still in Jesus' future. Therefore, when he says, "Has gone up", Jesus is referring to his ascension; "Went down" refers to the Second Coming. This makes perfect sense.
The only thing that still needs to be resolved is, "No man has ascended to Heaven." Jesus is clarifying something in the Proverbs verse. If other people had also ascended to Heaven, it would be nothing special that the son of God also ascended. Jesus is saying not only have I ascended (not only will I ascend), but I am also the only one who will ascend.
This causes a very large problem with Enoch and Elijah and for all Godly people, for example, Moses and David. This needs to be dealt with but I'm going to leave it to the end of this study to preserve the continuity of what Jesus is saying to Nicodemus.
Next, Jesus begins speaking about his death and the purpose behind it.
And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, thus the son of Man is going to be lifted up, 15 so that every person who believes in him shall not be lost, but shall have eternal life. (John 3:14-15)
Jesus is referring to the Israelites in the wilderness. Because of their utter lack of faith, God sent serpents into their camp that were biting and killing people. Moses had a metal serpent cast, as God ordered, and placed it on a pole so that everyone who looked at the serpent would be healed.
This sounds like idolatry, but it isn't. No one believes that looking at a metal serpent is going to heal them. It was an act of faith in God for the people to look at the serpent and believe that they would be healed. More than the healing of a snake bite, the faith that they had shown would result in eternal life for them … if they could hold on to it.
Jesus' points are:
The phrase "lifted up" can mean to be exalted and eventually Jesus will be exalted for being lifted up this way. However, the only way that people were "lifted up" on poles, at that time, was on Roman crosses. It seems like a simple step to understand Jesus means it this way, but maybe it wasn't.
For God loved the world in this way: so much that he would give up his Son, the only one, so that everyone who trusts in him shall not be lost, but he shall have eternal life. (John 3:16)
This is the most well-known verse in Christianity. Did you realize it was spoken to Nicodemus, secretly, at night and not publicly to a crowd of people during the day?
This is mostly a repeat of the previous verse (v 15) but Jesus adds:
The translation also swaps "trusts" for "believes" but those are the same word in the original text.
For God did not send his Son into the world that he would condemn the world, but that he would give life to the world by him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not judged, and whoever does not believe is judged already, because he does not believe in the Name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:17-18)
Jesus speaks about condemnation for sin. He says that his purpose in coming to Earth is not to find people guilty but to offer them eternal life.
Whoever believes (trusts) in the name of Jesus is not judged now, and therefore will not be condemned. Whoever lacks that faith is judged now and will be condemned by that.
Jesus says the "name of the son." We don't commonly use "name" this way. It doesn't mean the literal personal name "Jesus." It refers to the character or reputation of a person. In western movies, you would often hear, "he made quite a name for himself." In means trusting in all that Jesus has taught, promised, and lived as an example.
We also see another reference to "the only son of God". This time though, Jesus adds "begotten" by which he means born in the flesh.
This is the judgment: the light has come into the world and the children of men loved the darkness more than the light, because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does what is hateful, hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be convicted. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be revealed, that they are performed by God." (John 3:19-21)
Jesus refers to himself as the light and says that those who love darkness more than light do evil and do not want their deeds exposed to the light for them (and everyone) to see. The idea here is that they do not want their deeds to be measured against God's standard. So they do not come to the light, by which Jesus means they do not trust in Jesus.
Next he contrasts evil with truth, with the point being that anything that is not truth is evil. This also lines up with what Jesus says elsewhere, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." Those who do the truth, desire to expose their deeds in the light, so they can be seen to be doing the work of God.
Jesus says that he is going to ascend to Heaven and no man has done that. Because of the use of Prophetic Past tense, it isn't possible to know whether he means "no man will have ascended before me" or "no man will ever ascend". It doesn't matter to this study. Either way it causes a big problem.
Most people believe Enoch and Elijah went up to Heaven. That is a direct contradiction to what Jesus says here. Most people believe Moses' and David's spirits went up to Heaven. That too is a direct contradiction.
People believe Enoch and Elijah went to Heaven because the Bible says they went up to Heaven … right? That's what it says, right?
Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. (Genesis 5:24)
That's everything the Bible says about it. There is no mention of any destination. So why do most Christians say Enoch was taken to Heaven? They believe there are only two destinations, Heaven and Hell, and "Enoch walked with God", so he wouldn't have gone to Hell. So therefore he must have gone to Heaven.
Enoch didn't go to Heaven. So, where did he go?
We know more about how Elijah was taken but, again, we do not know his destination because the Bible does not say.
As they were going along and talking, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire, and it separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind to heaven. (2 Kings 2:11)
We do see the text say he went to heaven but the Hebrew word used here has many meanings. The three that are most relevant to this passage are: the air where birds fly, space where stars and planets are, and the place where God resides. How do we know which is correct here? We look at the context. It says a whirlwind (some translations say windstorm) took them up. Can a whirlwind take anyone into the Heaven of God? No. Can it take anyone into space? No. Therefore the text is only telling us that they were taken up into the air and out of sight.
Again, most Christians will say he was taken to his reward in Heaven, the Heaven of God.
Because it doesn't say where he was taken, there is a contrarian opinion to this. Some people believe that Elijah was picked up and then dropped off about 30 miles away. They say this to explain something the Bible says, but I won't go into that here.
Not only are the fiery chariot and horses a lot of trouble for what is effectively a bus ride, the Bible specifically speaks against this idea. God had informed Elisha and all the other prophets in the prophet school that this event was imminent, and they wouldn't see Elijah again. After Elijah was taken, the school insisted on looking everywhere for Elijah, but they returned empty-handed and Elisha said essentially, "told you so."
Elijah didn't go to Heaven. So where did Elijah go?
If we look at Old Testament Prophecy, it says clearly that Elijah will be present in the end-times.
Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome day of Yahweh. 6 And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land, devoting it to destruction. (Malachi 4:5-6)
Because of these verses, the Jewish Passover Seder always ends with a child going to the door to the outside and calling, "Eliyahu! Eliyahu!" They are expecting him to come before the Messiah.
Most Christians think John the Baptist fulfilled Malachi's prophecy, but Jesus said:
All the Prophets and the Law have prophesied until Yohannan [John the Baptist]. 14 And if you will, he is Elijah who was to come. (Matthew 11:13-14)
and
And his disciples asked him and they were saying to him, "Why do the Scribes therefore say that Elijah must come first [before the Messiah]?" 11 Yeshua answered and he said to them, "Elijah does come first so that everything may end." (Matthew 17:10-11)
Jesus is saying that John was a type of Elijah, which means he acted in the same pattern as Elijah. He did things like Elijah. Types are used heavily in Bible prophecy. It is a way of describing what a person will be like and do by referring to what some person in the past was and did.
By saying John is a type, Jesus is saying the Malachi prophecy is unfulfilled. The real Elijah will be there in the end-times to prepare God's people for the coming (2nd) of Jesus just as John the Baptist (the type of Elijah) prepared God's people for the coming (1st) of Jesus.
When we look at New Testament prophecy about the end-times, we don't see anyone called Elijah. We do see two unidentified characters, called the Two Witnesses. They are trying, largely unsuccessfully, to call God's people back to him, just as John the Baptist tried to do. They are withholding rain from God's people, just as Elijah did.
The following is speculation.
I can't back any of it from the Bible, but the logic behind it seems solid.
Is Elijah is one of the Two Witnesses? I think so. He must be present in the end-time. It's hard to believe he would go unmentioned in Revelation. Then it makes sense that Enoch, the only other man who never died, is the other of the Two Witnesses.
How do Enoch and Elijah go from their times and get to our future? The universe, with all its laws, are God's creation. So, he can do whatever he wants. Time is no limit for God.
One possible explanation is that God pulled them out of their times and put them back in at the end-time. This seems reasonable but, honestly, the people of our time do not understand time. We are still trying to understand it and the question comes as to whether time is even real.
However God did it (assuming they are in the future now), is that what Elijah's fiery chariot with fiery horses was all about? Maybe
Most professional theologians believe "born from water" refers to physical baptism. This can't be correct. Physical baptism is a sign and doesn't achieve anything. If you remember the thief on the cross, he was promised the kingdom without having had a physical baptism.
Water in Judaism was about cleansing. So it's clearer in our time to say "Born from cleansing"
And when they heard these things. They were stricken in their hearts, and they said to Shimeon and to the rest of the Apostles, "What should we do, brothers?" 38 And Shimeon said to them, "Return to God and be immersed everyone of you, in the name of the Lord Yahweh Yeshua, for release from sin, so that you may receive the gift of the Spirit of Holiness." (Acts 2:37-38)
Peter says there are two steps "Repent (return to God)" and "be baptized". What does baptism accomplish? Release from sin. Why do we need that? Then we can "receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Note that it does not say "receive the Holy Spirit." Peter is referring to the gift that the Holy Spirit has for us. The Holy Spirit is not the gift.
In Apostolic times, the Holy Spirit was sometimes giving out the gifts of power, from speaking in tongues to healing. In our time, the gifts are more mundane.
So the point is that baptism cleans a person so that the person can receive a gift from the Holy Spirit. Therefore, this verse doesn't mean that baptism comes before receiving the Holy Spirit.
And he said to Yeshua, "My Lord, remember me when you come into your Kingdom." 43 But Yeshua said to him, "Amen, I say to you that today you shall be with me in Paradise." (Luke 23:42-43)
The thief had not been baptized after believing in Jesus and would die that way. Yet, Jesus has promised him eternal life. We see that physical baptism is not essential to salvation. The Protestant churches accept that physical baptism is "an outward sign of an inward change."
Therefore baptism must be done to live an effective life, but isn't required for eternal life.
That still leaves us wondering what "born from water" means. What is the inward change?
Yeshua answered and said to him, "What I am doing now you do not understand, but after this you will know." 8 Shimeon said to him, "You will never wash my feet." Yeshua said to him, "If I do not wash you, you do not have any part with me." 9 Shimeon Kaypha said to him, "Therefore, my Lord, do not wash my feet only, but also my hands and my head." 10 Yeshua said to him, "He who is bathed does not need to wash except his feet only, for he is wholly clean. You are also entirely clean, but not all of you." 11 Yeshua had known who would betray him, therefore, he said, "Not all of you are clean." (John 13:8-11)
The disciples are already as clean as they can be - from sin and defilement, like those who have bathed. But, just as the first step after bathing makes the feet dirty (more so in their time), there is always a little bit more cleaning that needs to be done. It isn't a spot they missed, but a spot they couldn't clean or keep clean. They will be entirely clean when the Holy Spirit comes.
But when the sweetness and the loving-kindness of God our life-giver was revealed, 5 not by works of righteousness that we had done, but by his own love he gave us life, through the washing of the new birth (from the top / regeneration) and the renewing of the Spirit of Holiness (Titus 3:4-5)
Paul says eternal life comes by two things: the "washing of the new birth" and the renewing. These come from the Holy Spirit." How could physical baptism regenerate us spiritually? It must be a washing by God / the Holy Spirit.
The apostles spoke of baptism many times, but that word isn't here.
Note what we said about the "gift of the Holy Spirit" earlier. If the Holy Spirit was the gift in that verse, then it would mean the Holy Spirit was being renewed in this verse, which would be nonsense.
Nicodemus got the full load in this teaching. Jesus tells him, Who I am, what I'm doing, why, the gospel message, and what's coming. If Nicodemus can unpack it all, this is what he was told by Jesus.
It's unfortunate that John 3:16 is always pulled out of this context. Nicodemus is why it is pulled out of context. Nicodemus was an unbeliever, and this is Jesus giving him the gospel message. It's no surprise then that we would put it to the same purpose, even pieces of it. It is a concise part of the concise gospel message given to Nicodemus.
The last verse of this teaching is verse 21. Verse 22 really should say, "Then, Nicodemus' head exploded"