The Gospel of John

Nicodemus

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Conversations, Panels and Sermons

Lesson: 8- 70

Genre:

Track: 08

Dictation Name: RR197D8

Location/Venue:

Year:

Let us worship God. Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. Let us pray.

Almighty God our Heavenly Father we give thanks unto Thee that in this blessed season we are reminded afresh of the victory that is ours in Christ. That our Lord has come, that He has broken the power of sin and death and that He has commissioned us to extend His victory into every area of life and thought. Make us faithful to our calling in Him. Give us grace to serve Thee with all our heart, mind and being, to know always that thou art God and it is Thy will, not the will of evil men that shall be done. Give us grace therefore to walk by faith, to trust in Thee and to rejoice evermore that Thou art our king and redeemer. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Our scripture is John 3:1-21, our subject: Nicodemus.

“There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:

2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.

3 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.

8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

9 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?

10 Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?

11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.

12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?

13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.

14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:

15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.”

We come to one of the key incidents in the life of our Lord. We have an encounter and conversations here of very, very great importance. Nicodemus was a ruler of the Jews, he came to see Jesus by night, now it’s important to stop a moment and consider that night visit. Too often we are told by people that the night visit was a cowardly one, that he did not want to be seen but there is no truth to this. It was customary for Rabbis to pay one another long visits by night when interruptions were less likely. In those days when there were no power companies men worked from sun up to sun down, after that they slept. For the Rabbis it was a time of quietness, a time when they could come together for discussions. And so the Rabbis would pay one another long, long visits by night. Now Nicodemus’ statements in verse two are not flattery. He simply states our Lord is obviously come from God because His miracles cannot be explained in any other way. Now in verses one through fifteen we have a summary of their conversation. The details of an evening’s discussions are not given, only the essentials. Our Lord’s statement in verse three:

“Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Is an answer to Nicodemus’ central concern. Nicodemus begins by recognizing our Lord as at least a great prophet if not the Messiah. Because our Lord in verses five through fifteen does not evade the disclosure that He is the Messiah and because Nicodemus does not contest it Nicodemus’ concern is not with Jesus Christ but with the people, with the men of Israel who await the Messiah. Nicodemus saw no hope in man.

Now there is a key document or bit of fiction which summed up the spirit of the times. In [unknown] the story of the grand inquisitor which is sometimes published separately, it is the story of Christ returning to earth and walking around and the people instantly recognize Him and are drawn to Him. The grand inquisitor sends out men to arrest Him and to bring Him to him and he confronts Him and says why do you have to come back and mess things up? Don’t you realize that what you have to say is unrealistic? People are what they are. Your idea of changing them is futile, they have to be ruled and we’re ruling them in Your name, we’re controlling them to prevent them from doing what they would like to do. Well, Nicodemus felt the same way to a degree. He reflected the opinion of the leaders of the people and as a ruler of the people he knew that Judeans representing in their time the world’s best and most moral people were still a fallen and depraved people. His familiarity with the best and the worst in Judea and Galilee had made clear to him that no kingdom of God could be built on the people. How then could there be a true kingdom? Remember last week we saw how the Sanhedrin met to pass the sentence of death on Jesus and yet they hesitated, they knew He was a man sent from God at the very least and Caiaphas said it is better for this one man to die than the people to perish because they will perish with His program, ours which calls for more and more controls will save them. Now is this not precisely which is what Washington D.C., Sacramento and all the capitols in the world are engaged in? We will bring in the true kingdom by controls.

Our Lord’s answer was a very brief one. Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus was discouraged by what he knew the best men to be so he asks how in effect can any man reenter his mother’s womb to be born again? How else is he going to get rid of his past, of what he is. Men are bundles of habits and a fallen nature governs the formation of habits so that a rigidity of self will and egocentricity marks people. They want changes in the world, not in themselves. They long for a new world order but not for revolution in their lifestyles and habits. How can a new world be built on fallen man? The sons of Adam, the sons of men, do indeed want a new world order but at no cost to their way of life, their wants or their desire, their lifestyle. Nicodemus began by confessing that our Lord’s miracles came from God. Now our Lord tells him that the regeneration of men comes from God also, it is a miracle. A man’s life is the sum of all his past days. His inherited nature from his family and his self-will. His nature is fixed in a pattern, he grows in terms of a self-determined direction, how can this be changed? Our Lord was not a trained Rabbi but Nicodemus addresses Him as such because he recognizes Him as the great and true teacher. His questions are thus intelligent and respectful. In verse five our Lord states that rebirth means being born of water and of the spirit. Water here means purification and the spirit, supernatural quickening. The purification aspect is particularly set forth in baptism, the spirit points to a supernatural regeneration. In verse six our Lord agrees with Nicodemus, that which is born of the flesh is flesh.

It’s the same fallen human nature. Generations simply reproduces man’s fallen nature, it leads to no moral progression, only that which is born of the spirit is spirit. A supernatural rebirth breaks the evil cycle of the fall, the endless reproduction of sin and death. Apart from the spirit man’s work is self-destructive. In the spirit man changes and grows. Regeneration cannot be viewed as magical; it does not wipe out the past but in terms of Romans 8:28 it brings good out of the past. Now it is interesting that those who rail the most against predestination as though it makes men puppets are also those who expect being born again to wipe out all their problems. They are unrealistic on both counts. Regeneration does not eliminate our problems but it does give us power to overcome them. Those who get up and testify since I’ve been born again God has taken away all my problems are liars! God gives us the power to overcome problems, He doesn’t take them away. We have to do that. History is not cancelled out by regeneration nor is creation despised. God takes what we are and gives us power to become His children by the adoption of grace and to become members of the new human race whose Adam is Jesus Christ. Regeneration comes with the forgiveness of sins, a judicial act, and being made a new creation by the power of the triune God. We meet with Nicodemus again in 7:42-52, John 19:39-42, and there’s no reason to doubt that he was regenerate. Our Lord tells Nicodemus that we see the wind only in its effect as it blows things about, so too we can see the spirit rebirth in its effects.

In verses eleven through fifteen our Lord speaks to Nicodemus’ associates, those referred to in verse two ‘we know’. Their questions and unbelief are now dealt with plainly. Their concern has been with historical Israel, not supernatural Israel. Therefore they reject Christ’s witness because they have trouble accepting what He is doing before their eyes, in their time and their history, how can they understand the supernatural dimension? The reference to Moses and the serpent in the wilderness states simply the centrality of atonement as the necessary step toward the kingdom of God. Then in verses sixteen through twenty one the apostle John spells out the meaning of this fact of atonement and its basis as the entrance into the kingdom of God. Our Lord’s atonement is the expression of God’s redeeming love, verse sixteen. Jesus Christ is the dividing factor in all human history. If men flee from Him the light of the world, they shall perish, truth is Christ, evil is the rejection of Christ. The dividing power in all history is Jesus Christ. Men avoid Christ because as truth and light, verse twenty, He reproves their deeds. The word translated as reprove in verse twenty can also be rendered as discovered or discovers. It means in the Greek also to lay bare or expose. The unpopularity of Jesus Christ with the ungodly rests in this fact: He is the light of the world who exposes ungodly men in their evil. He will always be hated by ungodly peoples so that conflict is inevitable between Christians and a fallen world. To reject conflict is to deny the need for truth, Saint Paul did not say I have made a great compromise but I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. For this reason he knew that a crown of glory awaited him, not for compromise but for what must never be compromised.

Let us pray.

Our Father, we thank Thee that there is a new direction in history and that by Thy sovereign grace Thou hast made us that new direction. Make us mindful of our calling that we are citizens of the kingdom of God and its scope and power must be extended to the four corners of the world. Bless us mightily in Thy service, in Christ’s name, Amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?

[Question] Could you comment on the dispensational teaching that the kingdom of God is different than the kingdom of heaven?

[Rushdoony] That is a false distinction, among the Jews the name of God could not be mentioned, therefore they never said Yahweh or Jehovah, they said LORD. Even to this day among orthodox Jews they will not even write out G-O-D, God, but G_d, because they are afraid of taking the name of the Lord in vain. Well the gospels use both terms, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven, where the gospels are speaking at the time they were written to Jews and to Jewish converts out of respect they said the kingdom of heaven. Where they speaking for a gentile audience it is the kingdom of God. That’s the difference, it was one that was deeply imbedded in the life of Judea and it is still prevalent to this day among orthodox Jews. But the terms are identical in their meaning.

Any other…yes?

[Unintelligible Question]

[Rushdoony] They knew better than his disciples what He had said that He would rise again. They were the ones who demanded guards at the tomb. They were the ones who most fully appreciated His supernatural powers. With them from start to finish there was epistemological self-consciousness. They knew what they were doing and they felt that what they were doing was right, they were going to correct God. So they felt God didn’t understand things and Jesus Christ didn’t understand things, their help was needed. In a recent article two three months ago, or sometime this spring or early summer Andrew Sandlin called attention to a meeting in which this woman pastor I think, or leader, it was a public meeting of some sort, said let’s say a prayer for God. As though God needs man’s help and prayers. No one bothered to ask her to whom are you praying, to yourself? Or to the people? But that kind of temper is very prevalent. Well it was present there. They knew better than the disciples who Jesus was but they also felt that God was going to make a bad mistake without them. That temper is still with us. Yes?

[Question] How often does it happen that rulers who are in control look at the Christians as easier to govern because of what they believe?

[Rushdoony] What?

[Question] Easier to govern, I mean in Rome you said that they looked at the Christians as easier to govern.

[Rushdoony] Yes. Tertullian reminded the emperor of that fact, we are your most honest taxpayers, your law abiding people…that meant nothing. Why? Because they had another king, Christ, another law, biblical law. Therefore they were traitors, he preferred evil men to law abiding people who had an allegiance to something beyond himself. That’s still true. We are the ones who are the target of hostility and yet we are the law abiding element. We’ve been slandered in this past year by people in the cabinet and in the White House.

Any other questions or comments? Yes?

[Unintelligible Question]

[Rushdoony] No because we’re given the names in the New Testament. Gabriel and then later on Michael is referred to. So they are not THE angel of the Lord, God incarnate visiting this world. Any other questions or comments, well if not let us conclude with prayer.

Our Father we thank Thee that there is more at work in the world than man. Thou art ever with us to protect, to instruct, to guide, to bless and to prosper us. Keep us from having our eyes too much fixed on the evils and the evil men of this world and to be fixed on thee knowing that Thou wilt overcome all the obstacles before us and make us more than conquerors in Jesus Christ. And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, Amen.