How To Study The Bible
Vern Peterman · Jun 30, 2002
How to Study Bible (2001-02), No. 39
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262244207562

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

We're using largely the Complete Word Study of the New Testament to help give us indications as to what the words mean, definition-wise, as well as the particular part of the sentence, the grammar that each word holds. Okay. So all together here? All on the same page? Okay.

6, Jesus said, that which is one of the flesh is flesh, and the spirit is spirit. So he laid that out, and then Jesus turns around after making this statement, and he is talking directly to Nicodemus, and what does he say? What's his next message there in verse 7? Now, this is the often quoted, you must be born again, because it lays it out so clearly. But let's take a look at it one step at a time here. He says, marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again.

How about this word marvel? meaning from the dictionary and the complete words of the New Testament. Thalmatzo. Sounds like something you might eat for dinner. But anyway, it's thalmatzo. It is a wonder, or in this verb form, to wonder, marvel. I think this is a good way to look at it. To be struck with, and I think this thing is probably not admiration, but astonishment. To be struck with astonishment. Let's make sure we get the picture here.

Why would Jesus tell Nicodemus, you know, don't marvel at what I've said to you? Why would he say that? Obviously he was marveling. Ah, okay. He probably, what did he see? Maybe expression on Nicodemus' face? Nicodemus is like, You know, here's Nicodemus for decades, you know, studying the Old Testament. Just, he's steeped, matter of fact, later on we're going to say Jesus is, you know, you are the teacher of Israel and you don't understand? So, probably this look of astonishment was just, wow. And then how else do we know that that was kind of Nicodemus' response? because of his questions.

Yeah, the very questions he was asking. His questions were all something as astonishing as, am I supposed to go back in my mother's womb? I mean, that's kind of radical. Heidi? I've always wondered how possibly Nicodemus had known about having been born and having been born again. Jesus was implying that he had to know about it. Ah! That's a very good point. Very good point. We've been talking all along about how the Jews said this, and Jesus now is saying, don't marvel. It's almost like, why are you surprised? What's the big deal? Didn't you know this? And that's a very good question that Heidi asked.

What indications should Nicodemus have gotten already that would have said already you must be born again spiritually. How should Nicodemus have known before? Do we have a clue? Do you think if he was born the Holy Spirit would have spoken to him? Well, and that's a good way to look at it. In other words, the Old Testament does speak of, and not just here or there, the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And you would have expected that if Nicodemus had been born again, for example, that the Holy Spirit would have been telling him. Even as an unbeliever, there would be the sense of conviction. So there's a ministry of the Holy Spirit there, yes.

Why was the Holy Spirit only given after Jesus ascended to heaven? Okay, so Heidi is asking, wasn't the Holy Spirit only given after Jesus had ascended into heaven? Let's think about that. Now why do you say that the Holy Spirit was only given after Jesus ascended? Because Jesus told him he would send the Holy Spirit. Ah, okay. Jesus said, I will send the Holy Spirit. And what other indications do we have from, say, the New Testament that that's the case? Pentecost is a definite and definable event, isn't it? And the Holy Spirit always was on people like Saul.

He never lived. You're right. Let's hold off on that just a bit. Let's hold off on it just a bit. Let's think about in the New Testament, how do we know that the Holy Spirit is with believers of the church age now all the time. Yes, his spirit bears witness with our spirit. And that is a present tense continuing. His spirit is continuing to bear witness. Now, let's look at something else. Let's look at something else. What does Paul say in Romans? He does not have the spirit as none of his.

So having the Spirit goes right along with, and not just sort of a percentage thing, it's 100% all the time. Nancy and I have a friend in Carson City who had been in churches for some time, and she was going through a Bible study, and her eyes lit up. It's like somebody flipped a switch. She said, you mean the Holy Spirit's with me all the time? That to her was a real discovery, because somehow that had never sunk in. whether she'd been taught to the contrary or what, but somehow it finally hit, yes, the Holy Spirit's with her all the time. Now, Heidi brought up the question earlier. How about those in the Old Testament? And in truth, Nicodemus is still living at the end of that Old Testament era, isn't he? How about that? The Holy Spirit with them all the time?

What was the deal? What do we know about that? He just came for special purposes. Okay, he came for special purposes. Purposes like? Like prophets. Okay, certain prophets would speak and they would actually speak of the Spirit. Okay, alright. So there was a prophetic mode. Nancy? Certain kings, an instance that we can think of would be? Even Saul, and he was not considered great as kings go. David, yes. And here's something else.

One of the Psalms has a plea about the Holy Spirit. Do you remember? David, and what is the plea? Take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Of course, we don't have to sit there and talk about that, do we? But in the Old Testament times, the Holy Spirit was given for specific purposes, as Bertha pointed out, for particular times, particular people. The Holy Spirit was not a presence and an indwelling that every believer in that time could count upon.

So as a consequence, as Heidi well pointed out, this is kind of a hit and miss thing. Now when we come to this, however, How should Nicodemus, how should Nicodemus have known that this being born again has to be a spiritual event? Maybe because he can't understand why with the Word of God is saying without the Holy Spirit. Okay. The ministry of the Holy Spirit should be working to have the understanding of Scripture illuminated with the person who believes, okay? That's good. What else?

Well, in verse 6 it says, that which is the form of flesh is flesh, and that which is the form of spirit is spirit. And Jesus already did talk to him, didn't he, about the wind blows where it blows? You know, I think he's alluding to it, for sure. And I think, I mean, it's just finally getting there. It's beginning. Yeah, I mean, this is... There's nothing other than just flesh or spirit. Right. Right.

Let's, uh, Let's think of something here. There was another competing but less prominent group among the Jews, and that was the Sadducees. The Sadducees, as the joke goes, they're Sadducees, because they did not believe in life after death. When you're done, this is it.

They didn't believe in resurrection. They didn't believe in angels. They accepted, although obviously with some blind eyes, only the first five books of the Bible. And they were very skeptical in that sense. They were what we might call equivalent to today's theological liberals. So they were even less spiritually minded than these Pharisees. So here's one thing to look at. The Sadducees, there was no hope for them to have any spiritual insight because they hardly believed in anything spiritual at all. No wonder they were sad. Yes, no wonder they were sad. A very appropriate name, right? You're right, Bertha. Very sad people. Now, the Pharisees by comparison were spiritual. But yet still what was the problem?

If you read through the Old Testament, does the Old Testament make it sound like everything is just purely physical? When you read through the Old Testament, there's all kinds of spiritual things that take place, right? And yet, what do the Pharisees do? They boil it all down to, what's my genealogy and what stuff do I do? See that?

I mean, the whole perspective of the Old Testament is talking about There's a physical realm, and there's a spiritual realm. And yet, here the Pharisees, being more enlightened than the Sadducees, and even believing in a resurrection, still they hold everything back into, here's what's going to happen physically. I'm going to be born with the right genealogy, I'm going to have the right genetic background, and I'm going to do physically the right stuff.

They're still drawing away from all the spiritual indications and implications that came out of the Old Testament. Here is David pleading, ìTake not thy Holy Spirit from me,î and the Pharisees are saying, ìThe Holy Spirit doesnít even matter.î They are denying really any spiritual involvement with God, because itís all stuff we do here on planet earth, here in the material realm. So really, even aside from digging into particular passages, just the big picture of the Old Testament shows us there is something spiritually going on. And not only that, the whole Old Testament is constant interaction between what is spiritual and what is physical. And here the Pharisees, after having the entire Old Testament in front of them, what do they end up with?

The entire solution is physical. It's like, hello! They still don't get it, do they? Right. OK. So here's here's this tomato. OK. This dinner we're going to have. Right. Here's this tomato tomato. What do you think? Do you think so? So. So. So. OK. This is a pronunciation.

We put the A Z there, in fact, it would be a TZ. Yeah, it's like in German. When we transliterate, it's always a little bit strange because, well, for example, this here, the alpha is somewhat similar sounding to the, not the omega, which is a long O, but the omicron. So there's slight variations in pronunciation. And this one, we put the Z in there, but it's not so-ma-zo, it's so-ma-zo. It's like bap-teet-so. It ends with the same ending, but they have the T sound in there. So maybe we need to put little brackets in there with the T. Well, maybe not. Anyway, we look at this, and don't be struck with amazement.

And you can imagine, here is Nicodemus, just totally shocked. He's starting to get it, but he's still, just his mind is reeling with what Jesus has told him. Because even though he's read the Old Testament, he's read it with a veil over his eyes. The veil isn't just the law, that's certainly a veil, but he's also just plain not seeing what's there about the spiritual interaction between God and the person who believes. Just completely blind to it and boiling it down to what's my genealogy, what do I do?

Okay, so here he is saying, marvel not. Don't marvel. Now, did Jesus literally say you must be born again in the prior passage? Do you find that you must be born again in the prior passage? verses 1 through 6. So what you see is he said that, not literally, you must be born again.

So he isn't re-quoting himself, he is essentially putting it in simpler form. Because remember, one of the things we had noted was that previously Jesus says accept, so he put it in a negative sense, right? In other words, you have this requirement, but he put it in the negative sense. Now Jesus is restating the same truth in a positive sense, isn't he? See that? So he's saying, you must be born again, but it's actually a restatement in the positive of the same truth that he already put forth previously in the negative. Joanne?

Jesus, it says in the next place, it behooves you We'll take a look at that in a minute. We'll take a look at that here in a minute because it's interesting to take a look at how things are said. One of the things that we've noted is it's possible to use verbs that are imperative. If you see that, you notice that this is not just a suggestion, it's an imperative. There is another way to say it in the Greek, and that is to use, and let me put the word up here, to use this Greek word, day, which is, you must, and it is another way to communicate the imperative.

So that's what Jesus uses here, you must, and notice it even quotes John 3.7, so it's really pointing right to it. So you must, but, you must present active indicative, present indicative, right?

Here. So you must, of necessity, it is essential, it is necessary, absolutely. That's what he's saying. It's absolutely necessary, it is essential. So he chooses not to use the imperative verb, but this is actually more emphatic than the imperative because it puts a word in there that communicates the necessity. You must be born.

And this word born is the same as we talked about before. And how about this one? Again. Remember we talked about that one previously. That's the Greek word anosin. And what do we say about that word? It has two meanings. And typically the English only translates one of them most of the time. It means both above and again and most of the time our translators are only taking a part of it which says again. And in fact to have the complete communication of the word you would say it, you must be born again from above. It is of necessity that you be born again from above. And that's the part that Nicodemus is forgetting Nicodemus thought was, I'm of the right genealogy, I'm doing here on planet earth all the right stuff. Obviously I'm summarizing, he had been trained in all the fine details of that.

The Jews had 613 laws, and to that they would do what they called building a fence around each law. They would put extra rules onto each rule so that you'd be sure that you didn't break the law. They couldn't just say, you know, you must not work on the Sabbath. They would define what that was. How big a piece of wood can you lift? How far can you go away from the home that you're in? They would define all that. It said you can't boil a baby goat's meat in its mother's milk. Well, they'd say, well, then we'd have to define that Well, then you can't eat milk and meat within six hours of each other.

We've gone and just made variations on the same theme, haven't we? Frequently churches will just say, well, we don't like those laws, but we'll come up with our own, right? And suddenly define that as righteousness. Oh, no. Yeah, we've really gotten ourselves in a tangle, haven't we?

Because here Jesus would be emphatic and repetitive with Nicodemus, and what do we do? We blindly repeat the same thing that Nicodemus was doing. Here's Jesus saying, you must be born again, okay? So, you were born once physically, which, okay, you're a Jew, you're a descendant of Abraham, that's fine, but that doesn't qualify you. So, right there, Nicodemus has dropped his jaw.

He's just... But, from above, wait a minute, how do I do that? He says, you know, which law is that under? See? That's what he's trying to figure out. He says, man, if the laws are the whole thing, you know, then which one is it? I can't find any. I mean, I've been through all 613 of them, and all the ones we added on top of that, and I can't figure this one out. And that's because it isn't something that he does. He's mind-blown at this point in time.

He's starting to try to get it, but you notice Jesus has to kind of keep coming back at it, keep touching on it. You must be born again, and again, this word anaphan, you must be born again from above. And it's unfortunate our translators have been kind of truncated in the way they bring it across. Yes, it means again, but not just again. It means from above, and the phrase from above always is pointing, this is God's doing. This is God's doing. You can see that phrase from above other places in scripture, and it's kind of a shorthand for saying it's what God does. And so that's what he's trying to get across to them. All the stuff you do, I'm not talking about one more rule. I'm not talking about one more thing after you're 613. I'm talking about something that God does."

And that's the focus that he's trying to get Nicodemus to shift to. Okay, now look, he's given him this statement, which is, I mean, that's just real clear to us, right? But this Nicodemus, you've got to understand, he's had decades of training that says it's all in your genealogy and it's all in what you do, period. And what a great many churches have done, as Wayne has pointed out, What they'll do is they say, well, it's not the genealogy, but we'll still have a whole list of stuff you've got to do. So now, what does Jesus do in verse 8? He's giving a physical illustration to get Nicodemus thinking spiritually.

So what does he do? He says, The wind bloweth where it listeth, or where it wills, and thou heardest the sound thereof, but thou canst not tell whence it cometh. excuse me, and whether it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. Now, is he, what's he talking about there?

What's the purpose of the illustration? Well, I think it's showing you the difference you can't really see everything, that you can't really even see the gift, but you can see what it does, like the trees or the veterans. and he's trying to get the keeper out of this, you know, this block there and square that he's in that he's Jewish and I'm trying to get him out of that and make him understand there's something that he can't see that's happening. Yes, okay. Yeah, he's trying to get him to think outside of just the purely physical, this is what I got to do level of thinking. And that's what the illustration's about.

It is a mistake to try to make the illustration say more than what Jesus was trying to clarify. You get the point there? Any illustration or parable, this is something to remember as you're interpreting scripture, to try to make an illustration or parable go beyond what it was intended to illustrate is a mistake. Then you're trying to make something say something that was never intended.

So it's important to look at, what's he trying to get across? And it was pointed out here that first of all, we're trying to get beyond just what's physical. I'm giving you a physical illustration, Nicodemus, so that you understand sometimes there's things happening that are outside of what is physical.

Here's something else. Do human beings control the wind? Ah! You see, so here's another aspect of it. Nicodemus is thinking, okay, I'm born of Abraham and I can't control that. But all the 613 laws and all the extra laws to make sure I follow the laws that are already written down, that's all stuff that I do.

The wind is not something that I do. So this is a good illustration for two reasons. One is it tells you there are effects, there are impacts that are not based on things you can see. And the reason he talks about that it goes where it wishes, and we don't understand it, we don't control it, we don't see it, is for him to understand there is a spiritual impact, Nicodemus, that takes place that is outside of your control. It is outside of something that you personally do. that it's God's doing.

Well yeah, think about this guy that he had had decades of training. And let's ask this question, when did these rabbis begin to get their training in the Jewish laws? As kids, they didn't wait until you're off in college age or something. They start as kids and then they'd get drenched with those as kids and then as they get older continue on going tutoring and training and this kind of thing. So this is deeply ingrained into Nicodemus' thinking. I mean from the time he has been old enough to begin to hold a book and look at it on his own, he's had this drummed into his head.

And now Jesus is coming along with, wait a minute Nicodemus, there is a level that you don't see and beyond that what needs to happen is not something you sit there and have total control over. It's a good illustration but you can imagine Nicodemus just kind of straining after decades and he's not a young man. When he talks about can a man go back into his mother's womb when he is old, guess who he's talking about? He's talking about Nicodemus. So we're talking about a guy who is not young, and he has had decade after decade after decade of this training, and he's probably already turning around and directing that teaching to other people that he's had. And now Jesus is bringing this understanding that is outside of what he's been taught or had been teaching others.

So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. Now, what is that phrase, born of the Spirit? He hasn't used that before yet, has he? What does born of the Spirit mean? What is that talking about? And notice that this is capitalized here. Regenerated by the Spirit is the source of that regeneration. Okay, alright. We talked previously, this regenerating is bringing life. and to us, right?

And Paul talks about this, the natural condition of man, whether he's a descendant of Abraham or not, the natural condition of man is to be spiritually dead. And that spiritually dead means separated from the life of God, not having identity with him. So being born of the Spirit is having life again where we are not separated from the life of God. As a matter of fact, as we learn elsewhere, the sin nature that mankind is born with, each individual is born with, is what becomes separated. Not eliminated, not terminated, but becomes separated from our identity, from who we are at that point of regeneration. So Jesus is trying to get him to understand what is this born of the spirit thing. He says, well, I'm of the right genealogy. I'm born from Abraham already. So what does that have to do with being born of the Spirit? And I do all the right stuff.

So Nicodemus, by his usual understanding, wouldn't connect with this. So Jesus is introducing something. This has not been along the lines of thinking that he's been drenched with over the decades. So how does Nicodemus answer? Isn't that something? Nicodemus responded and said to him, and just this question, how can these things be?

Pardon me if I've repeated this story, but my grandpa on my mom's side was out in the fields in Great Bend, Kansas working alongside this fellow who had been in the Civil War, had been a slave boy. And he was working alongside out in the fields. Of course, Kansas is flat. And so the only thing that stops your horizon is any trees that might be there. Well, my grandpa's next to this guy and they're working out in the field and they hear a plane.

And this guy had never seen one before. And he hears this plane and my grandpa said he just froze and his eyes fixed on that plane as it came over the trees. And he just watched it, watched it and watched it until it went over the trees the other way and he turned to my grandpa and he says, There ain't no such thing, you know? He'd never seen or heard anything like that before in his life. There ain't no such thing.

Well, that's Nicodemus. He's not quite making it as a statement, but it's almost that way, isn't it? Don't you see that in what he said? He says, okay, I'm trying Jesus, but he doesn't come out and say, Jesus, listen to me. That can't be. Okay, what does he say? How can these things be? How can that possibly be?

You see, this is really straining his whole mindset, his whole view of the world. It's been yanked and pulled by what Jesus has just told him. Just shocking stuff. Startling revelation. We look at it and we say, well, gosh, what a dense head, you know? But the thing is, if you think of how Nicodemus has been taught to think of things, This is something he's really having a tough time breaking loose of. He's not telling Jesus outright no, but he doesn't understand. He doesn't understand. Have you ever seen that? You talk to somebody and you tell them the truth and they just don't get it? They just can't quite get it through their heads.

So I think that's one thing to think about. Obviously this conversation isn't over. And we see later on in John that Nicodemus does respond. But it shouldn't surprise us that people have a hard time seeing and understanding what we come to look at and say, well, of course. Born again? Sure, I know what that means. Well, apparently Nicodemus didn't. And understanding it was a real strain for him. Now, the flip side of that is You talk to a lot of people, you say, are you born again? Yes. And then what do they do? They fall back into the same character of life as Nicodemus. Where it's all the rules. If all the rules, then I've got it all, right? If I do all the external stuff, well of course I'm there.

So it's something we may look at and say, well, Nicodemus, why don't you get it? Well, maybe we can take a look around and ask the same question. Because it's something that human beings have a tough time with. We're glad to say there's something spiritual, and the Pharisees would. But you mean it isn't up to me? That's a hard thing for a human being to handle. Grace? What's that? God doing it all? What's that? That's a new thought. Baffling. Alright, let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for what you have indeed done. We thank you for the provision that you have made. In fact, it is necessary that we be born again. Lord, beyond that, we pray that you would give us wisdom in our words with others as we speak to them and as we seek to convey these truths so that they might understand. Lord, we pray that we would be bold with the truth, not obnoxious, not overbearing, but that we would be bold with the truth and lay it out by your Spirit's doing and not simply by our own action and volition. We pray for understanding, Lord, and for insights into the hearts of others. Thank you for your precious word. In Jesus' name, amen.