January 30, 2022

So, take your Bible and join me in a couple of different places. You're gonna need to find in your Bibles., first of all, in the New Testament, you're gonna need to find John chapter three. We'll be looking at a couple of verses there in John chapter three. And then we're going to springboard back from that back to Numbers, chapter 21. Numbers is the fourth book of your Old Testament; Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, so it's not too hard to find Numbers, chapter 21. What we'll be looking at this morning, are two instances of teaching from the two greatest teachers of the Bible; Jesus, of course, and a distant second, Moses. So the two greatest teachers,―those two teachers that the Bible holds up to us, as above all others, Jesus and of course, Moses, we'll be looking at instances from both from the Scriptures centering upon both of them this morning.

Now, last week, we talked about this grace, the gospel of grace, we could call it that comes to us from Leviticus, we might even call it the Gospel according to Leviticus. And we talked about some distinctions that, that the Book of Leviticus holds some unique aspects of the Book of Leviticus. This morning. As we look at these two passages, we also see that both of these passages also hold some very clear distinctions for us. First of all, as we look to the New Testament, we look to, here in John chapter three, will immediately, immediately recognize what's going on in John chapter three. There's this interchange between Jesus and this man that we all know named Nicodemus. Now Jesus’ interchange with Nicodemus is extraordinarily important in our New Testaments. Here's why. In our New Testaments, we find Jesus converses with a lot of people, we find that he converses with people who are his antagonists; the Pharisees, the Sadducees―those who are out to destroy him or demean him in some way. We also find that Jesus has interchanges with people in which He presents to them some path of salvation or an invitation to salvation. And they decline it, such as the rich young ruler, or the one who would follow Jesus, but he wants to go bury his father first. And those instances in which Jesus seems to present an opportunity to follow him. And that opportunity is declined. We also see Jesus having conversations with people that do decide to follow Him that give up all they forsake all they believe upon Him, and they follow Him.

But some of those conversations, in fact, the bulk of those conversations are extraordinarily short, Things like; leave your nets and follow me, and they do.

So we see that happening as well. And we also see times in which Jesus will contend with those who are the enemies of the gospel. We see all these kinds of conversations that Jesus has in the New Testament, however, perhaps the rarest type of conversation that Jesus has in the Bible, in fact, we may even say that there is only one instance of this type of conversation, and that is a conversation in which Jesus reasons with someone whom God is calling to Himself.

So Jesus extends opportunities to follow Him. Jesus, even in the following story in John chapter four, he even will confront the sin of those who are struggling with following Him, but rare if ever―perhaps this is really the only clear instance in Scripture―in which Jesus reasons from the Scriptures, why a person should believe upon Him.

And so this instance from this conversation with Nicodemus this instance in John Chapter Three serves as an extraordinarily important instance for us, because it shows the Master Himself turning to the Scriptures to give reasoning―why one who is struggling with belief, should believe upon Him.

And so it provides for us an enormous opportunity of teaching and learning as we ourselves seek to know how to reason from the Scriptures with those who are themselves struggling with belief. So this conversation with Nicodemus is extraordinarily important. Now if we look to the story that we're going to turn to also in Numbers, chapter 21. Numbers chapter 21, is going to be the illustration that God uses from the Old Testament Scriptures, to reason with Nicodemus as to why and how he may believe upon the Son of Man and become a follower of Jesus.

So this instance in Numbers chapter 21, that we'll look at, if we were doing a systematic study through the book of Numbers, we would clearly see that this is the climax of the whole book. In fact, this is the linchpin, this is the key to understanding all of the book of Numbers that we're going to turn to this morning in Numbers chapter 21. So both of these instances from the Scripture are unique and distinct, and extraordinarily important for us. So you want to have your fingers on both of those, we could start with Numbers 21, and then leap over to John three, or we could start at John three and leap over to John, or Numbers 21. We'll do the latter this morning. We'll start in John's gospel.

John chapter three, we'll walk through that and then we'll go over to Numbers chapter 21. So you'll have your fingers ready on both of those. Now, one thing that we cannot do, one thing that's impossible for us to do, as New Testament believers in Christ, is to over emphasize the cross. We cannot possibly spend too much time delving into the cross, learning the cross, immersing ourselves in the cross. And by the cross, I don't mean that, that tool of Roman execution. I mean, the work that was done by means of the cross―on the cross by Jesus, we cannot possibly think about that too much. We cannot possibly understand it too deeply, we cannot possibly spend too much time learning of it. The reason for that is because everything in the Christian life comes from the cross. The cross is not just the entrance into the Christian life, it is everything about the Christian life. JD Greer put it well when he compared the Christian life to a swimming pool. And sometimes we often think about the cross as the springboard or the means of getting into the Christian life. But in reality, the cross is not just the springboard the diving board to get into the waters of Christian life. It is the water itself. It is the very air that we breathe as Christians, everything about how we are, how we are, who we are, and how we are to live. All of that is based upon the cross. We never grow past the cross, we never come to a point where we say okay, now we can leave the teachings of the cross and go on to deeper things or more things, we can always delve more deeply into the cross, but we can never grow beyond it.

This is why Paul will say to the Colossian believers in Colossians, chapter one, verse 10, “In the same way that you came to know Christ, that's also how you walk with Him.” You grow with him, you live, you are sanctified, your growth in Christ comes to you the same way that your birth in Christ came, which is by means of the cross, the substitutionary punishment of Christ on your behalf. That is everything about the Christian life.

And so as we turn this morning to two instances that are going to teach us greatly about the cross and illustrate this to us, we recognize as we even begin, that this is this is not only the beginning, but this is also the very air that we breathe. As believers in Christ.

So we turn now to John chapter three. We'll begin here in John chapter three. And since we're not doing a systematic study through John's gospel, we'll spend just a little bit of time just setting a little bit of a context. John, chapter three, the context is very important to understand this interchange between Jesus and Nicodemus. In John chapter three, John has begun by establishing for us: Jesus. At the creation, the creation was done by Him, through Him, for Him, and He was before the creation. So Jesus is God. And he has established this theme of receiving the truth, Jesus is the Logos. He is the truth, he is the light. He is the light that has come to his people, and his people did not receive him.

So John has established this, this theme of receiving the light that has come, receiving the revelation receiving the truth. And then he goes on into chapter two. And remember, he talks about how Jesus did not give himself to men because He knew the hearts of men. And right from there, he goes into chapter three.

Now chapter three and chapter four, are paired together for a reason. In fact, chapter three, chapter four and even beyond are paired together for a reason. So we see this theme here of Jesus, being received by some and rejected by most. We see him being received by His own. Nicodemus represents His own because Nicodemus is a Jew and a Pharisee. We also see Jesus being received by those who were not His own, meaning the Samaritan woman who comes next. And then we also see Him being rejected by both His own and those who are not His own. And then all that is followed of course by the story of miracle―Jesus, His first public miracle of turning the water to wine at the wedding at Cana. Turning the water to wine at Cana was all about what chapter three and chapter four teaches, and by way of Nicodemus and the woman of the Samaritan woman at the well. Both of them received Jesus, and by receiving Jesus, Jesus has to displace, from their hearts and from their minds, all of their preconceived understandings of how it is they know God. Nicodemus has these preconceived notions about how one knows God. Jesus comes along and teaches him a new way, a different way. Nicodemus struggles with that and says, “How can these things be, I can't understand this.” Jesus has to displace that.

Then the Samaritan woman also has her notions of how one is right with God―remember, she wants to talk about which Mountain you worship on, and this sort of thing. Jesus puts all that aside and says, That's not important. What's important is your sin.

And both of them has to have to displace the old information in order for the new to come. And boom, then we're hit with the miracle of the water to wine at the wedding of Cana―which was what all that is about the water, the old has to be displaced for the new to come.

And so all of that is what John is building up to. So we begin with all of that in the back of our mind here in verse one of John chapter three. Now we'll sort of walk up to verse 14, and 15 is where we want to settle in for just a few moments. But we'll walk up to that just to make sure that we're following John's train of thought.

From verse one. “Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.” So he's an important man. He's a high ranking person, he's well respected. He's well off in the society. He is a teacher of the Jews. As we'll learn later, he's also a ruler. Verse two, “This man came to Jesus by night, and said to Him, ‘Rabbi.’”

So much as has often been made about Nicodemus coming to Jesus by night. Some have said that this shows that Nicodemus was teetering on the on the brink of belief, but he's still too embarrassed or ashamed, not brave enough to come and talk to Jesus by day. So he comes by night. That may very well be so. Others have said, no, no, that's probably not what's going on here. Probably what's going on here is just like what typically goes on. People have other jobs and responsibilities in the day. And oftentimes, when they want to do something like this, it's done at night, just as oftentimes when we want to do something, it's done after, sort of, business hours. We think back to Paul and Paul's ministry in Corinth, and his ministry and, and Ephesus and other places. And we recall how he was a tentmaker by day, and by night, he would teach the Scriptures. And so perhaps this is what's going on to the Nicodemus isn't coming by night because he's afraid to he's coming by night because that's when he can, because he has other responsibilities and other things that he has to do during the day.

So he comes and sees Jesus, when he's able to, either one of those fits the text and the text isn't clear as to which might be the case. So I would just caution us to not hold too firmly to one or the other. It may be that it comes by night because he's not ready, yet ready to be seen talking to Jesus or it may be that he comes by night because that's all he can do.

But he comes by night to Jesus. And he says, “Rabbi,” this term of respect, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God for no one can do the signs that you do.” So here he greets Jesus with this respect, calls him Rabbi acknowledges that he's from God. Everybody can see this because of what you're doing. Now in other places in the Gospel, we'll see a similar sort of interchange that is sarcastic. We think of instances in which the Pharisees are trying to trick Jesus and trap Jesus and they begin with some flattery. They say, “We know that you are a man of God, we know that you're not swayed by people's opinions where you don't care what people think about you,” right? And all they mean is to just butter Him up because they're trying to trap Him.

Here. We know that's not the case with Nicodemus, because we know Nicodemus his story, or at least we at least know some of his story. Because we know what happens after this interchange here. We will see Nicodemus later on. In fact, we will see him famously after the death of Jesus risking his reputation to be a part of the burial party of Jesus's body.

So we know that Nicodemus eventually―whether or not it happens on this night or later―we know that eventually he will believe and he will cast his lot in with Jesus.

So he comes in he says, these terms of respect Rabbi, we know that you're from God, no one can do what you do unless God is with him. Verse three, “Jesus answered him, Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” So again, much is made there about Jesus's radical turning on a dime, changing the subject. Nicodemus says, “Rabbi, we acknowledge that you're from God.”…”Unless you're born again. You cannot see the kingdom of God.” And we sort of marvel at just how Jesus has this one-track mind. He wants to get over to the idea of new birth right away.

Now, I think probably too much is made of that, also, I think that when we read our Scriptures, when we read, particularly the Gospels and the book of Acts, we should always remind ourselves that the gospel writers are not writing down every word of dialogue. They're not sitting there with a pen, writing every single word of dialogue that’s said. Or when they're recording a sermon, maybe one of Jesus's sermons or in the book of Acts, one of the apostles sermons, they’re not writing every single sentence that was said. They want the main points, the central points to be clearly gotten across. So they're going to make sure that those are there. But because they're not writing every word in every sentence that can sometimes seem like that the change of subject is rather rapid, or unexpected, or sudden. They can feel that way when we're reading a more or less summary of some of the things that were said. So I would tend to believe that the conversation with Nicodemus certainly Jesus can change the subject on a dime, and certainly has this laser beam focus on this gospel of the new birth that he wants to get to with Nicodemus. And he probably did make some sudden changes of subjects. But I tend to believe that this conversation with Nicodemus was probably hours long. And they probably went from subject to subject more gradually than it reads like when we're just reading the summary here.

So indeed, Jesus is focused in this direction, and this is probably startling for Nicodemus. In any case, however, I don't think it's quite as stark as maybe as it comes across initially here. So, after the greeting, we're told that Jesus is truly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God, verse four, Nicodemus said to Him, How can this be? How can a man be born when he's old? How can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born again? So Nicodemus clearly is not perceiving what Jesus is talking about? And this is extremely understandable because the metaphor of new birth was never used in the Old Testament. There were lots of metaphors for life through Messiah in the Old Testament, one of them was not a new birth. And so this is an entirely new metaphor for Nicodemus, a man who knows the scriptures and is well versed in the scriptures. However, he's never heard this. Jesus invented this in this conversation. So it's entirely understandable that Nicodemus is not following what Jesus is saying. And so he says, Can you clarify? How can that be born again? Enter again, I'm a grown man, how can I do this? How am I to be born again and this way, Jesus is telling him spiritual truths. He's telling him heavenly truths, and Nicodemus is not following his heavenly truths. Nicodemus said to Him, How can this be? Verse five, Jesus answered, Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the Spirit of spirit, Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear it sound but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who was born of the Spirit. So Nicodemus says, I don't follow your analogy, Jesus, I don't follow this born again thing, Jesus is, unless you're born again, you will not see the kingdom of God. And here is how the Spirit works. The Spirit works like the wind. You don't see the wind, but you see the effects of the wind. The same thing is true with the Spirit. You don't understand the spirit and see the Spirit working, but you will see the effects of what the Spirit does both in yourself and in others. So Jesus's answer to Nicodemus, Jesus, I don't understand this new birth thing. His answer is one new birth is not optional for the kingdom of God. Number two, this is beyond you, Nicodemus. This is a spiritual insight. This is a spiritual truth. This is a heavenly truth. This is a truth of the spirit. earthly people, non spiritual people, natural man can see the effect of the work of the Spirit but they cannot see the work of the Spirit. So ultimately, Nicodemus, I'm speaking with spiritual things that are beyond your your discern and your understanding. Verse nine, Nicodemus said to Him, How can these things be so he's still just not grasping what Jesus is getting it?

Completely understandably. He's still not grasping Jesus's point he's is, we can hear I believe, Nick is Nicodemus is desire. But what we see also clearly is that he's just not following Jesus. Now we come to verse nine, I'm sorry, verse nine again. Now how can we how can these things be Jesus answered him, verse 10, Are You the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things. So a little bit of what we have jab there. Nicodemus, Nicodemus, you tell me, you're the teacher of Israel. And that's the definite article. They're not a teacher, you're the teacher. So he's a, he's a high ranking fellow. He's well versed in the scriptures. He's respected. He's the teacher of Israel. And Jesus says, you're the teacher of Israel, you don't understand these things. The implication, you need to teach your yourself, you're the teacher, and yet you don't understand. You need to be taught yourself, you need a teacher, to teach you I II, spirit, capital S, you need a teacher to come and teach you truly, truly verse 11, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we've seen, but you do not receive our testimony. So boom, back again, to the theme of receiving. If we had been following and tracking from verse from chapter one, it would leap out of us that here John comes right back again to this theme of receiving Jesus came to His own and His own, received Him not, but to those who did receive Him, He gave the power to become children of God. So this theme of there are, there are those who receive and there are those who don't receive Jesus now says, Nicodemus, you're not receiving. You're not receiving, I'm giving. I'm giving to you, but you're not receiving. Verse 12. I've told you of earthly things and you don't believe how can you believe if I tell you of heavenly things, I'm telling you earthly things. In other words, I'm using earthly examples to tell you of spiritual truths. And I'm trying to teach you the spiritual truths, but I'm using earthly analogies, the analogy of being born again, the analogy of the wind, I'm trying to use earthly analogies to teach you spiritual truths. You don't understand the earthly analogies. So how are you going to understand the spiritual truths behind you? Because these truths, he says, are from heaven? How are you going to understand? heavenly things? Verse 13, no one has ascended into heaven, except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. So now the connection here, between Verse 13 And verse 12, is that word heaven. Jesus says, You don't understand earthly things, how are you going to understand heavenly things, and no one has ascended to heaven, except the one who descended from heaven. In other words, if you need to understand heavenly truths, you need someone from heaven to teach you. And I am him. I have descended from heaven. And I'm the only one qualified to teach you heavenly truths, because I'm the only one who has descended from heaven. Now, no one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, verse 14, and here we are. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. So here we have Nicodemus, I believe, struggling to believe. I believe that Nicodemus believes the scriptures in full and understands within himself that the Scripture speak of life that he does not have. And he earnestly wants that life. And he has heard of this man, Jesus, and Jesus resonates with him. He comes to Jesus, whether by secret or just by opportunity.

And he is trying his human best to believe. But his human best, is not stirring within him or creating within him, the belief that he needs. He's not doubting what Jesus says. He's not denying what Jesus says He just doesn't understand it. But he wants to. Jesus is engaging in a conversation here in which he is trying to facilitate belief in him. And he's trying to facilitate it with some earthly analogies that when new birth, but then when those don't work, then he goes to the scriptures to numbers 21. And he uses the analogy in numbers 21, of the Son of man being lifted up. Well, that's his application. He's going to talk about this serpent being lifted up. And his application is just like that. Notice the word as verse 14, as Moses lifted up, then look a little bit later. So must, those two phrases put together tell us that Jesus is making a one to one correlation. This is what happened in numbers 21. And in the same way that that happened This has to happen. You seek belief, Nicodemus, you seek life. I'm trying to help you to get life. Here's how, here's what must happen. There must be just like Moses lifted up the serpent in the pole, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. Now, this phrase lifted up. John's gonna use this phrase three times in his Gospel. He's gonna use it again in chapter eight. And again in chapter 12. The next two times he uses that he's going to be crystal clear, that lifted up his speaking of crucifixion. So there's no doubt as to what Jesus is speaking of here is not speaking about being metaphorically lifted up, as then lifted up in people's praise or lifted up in people's minds or lifted up in their hearts. He is speaking not metaphorically, but he's speaking literally, of His crucifixion. And the analogy that he wants to use to help Nicodemus, a man who wants to believe and we would therefore believe he's among God's elect. And God is calling him to himself. How are you going to believe Nicodemus? Jesus is trying to facilitate belief in his heart and Jesus goes to this instance and numbers 21, which is going to be crucial for us to understand what Jesus is saying to Nicodemus here in John chapter three. So now, all of this will come back to this but all of this happens right before what comes right next. We all know the most well known verse in the Bible. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. All of this is immediately before that.