The Gospel of John: Savoring the Peace of Jesus in a Chaotic WorldExemplo

My first child made his appearance into the world eight days after my expected due date. After Zach was delivered, I reflected in awe on the process of labor that every mother goes through to deliver her baby. I was overwhelmed by it.

In our study of John today, Jesus will discuss the process of spiritual birth with a seeker.

Our English translations sometimes miss the play on words used in the original Greek. In John 2:23, Jesus essentially said some people believed in Him, but He didn’t believe in them. What we discover in this passage is that belief can be superficial. Jesus knew those who had sincere belief and those momentarily awed by miracles.

Signs could be the place where faith starts. John recorded miracles in his Gospel for that purpose (John 20:30-31). But genuine belief was necessary for spiritual rebirth. Attractional activities that pique an interest in the gospel message aren’t bad, but they aren’t enough. A person must move from superficial to sincere belief. Jesus revealed in these verses that people who want to experience His works without submitting to His Word will not share His life.

One man who saw Jesus’s miraculous signs wasn’t easily convinced; he asked questions to delve deeper into Jesus’s teaching.

Nicodemus belonged to a group called the Pharisees, whose focus was strict obedience to the law. He also was one of the seventy-one members of the Sanhedrin. Nicodemus approached Jesus using the term of respect —Rabbi—assuming Jesus was a teacher sent from God, but he didn’t realize that Jesus was God!

Scholars have debated why Nicodemus came to Jesus at night. Since the text doesn’t tell us, we can only speculate.

• Perhaps he feared what colleagues might think of him and didn’t want to be seen with Jesus.

• Maybe he wanted undisturbed time with Jesus away from the crowd.

• As one with ruling authority, he might have been busy during the day with pressing responsibilities.

Regardless of the reason for this encounter, we can find an application for our lives. Public worship and study gatherings are important, but there are things we can’t get from Jesus with the crowd. We need personal, intimate meetings with our Savior.

Nicodemus acknowledged the signs Jesus performed but struggled with Jesus’s teaching regarding spiritual rebirth. He couldn’t move what Jesus was saying out of the realm of physical birth: “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?” (v. 4). But Jesus stated this was a different kind of birth, one “of water and the Spirit” (v. 5).

Scholars do not agree on the exact meaning of Jesus’s statement regarding water and Spirit. Some have latched onto this statement to assert baptism as a requirement for salvation. Water baptism is an important step of obedience for a Christian, but Jesus wasn’t referencing it directly in this conversation. Some say both elements point to a picture of life. Together, they refer to spiritual birth. Others say being “born of water” references physical birth, as during childbirth, a mother’s amniotic sac breaks, releasing a watery substance. I lean toward this interpretation. So, Jesus was saying a person can’t enter the kingdom of God without being born physically (water) and spiritually (Spirit).

Using the birth analogy, Jesus revealed that just as you cannot manufacture babies, you cannot manufacture Christians.11 Spiritual birth is a mystery, but it is necessary and observable. Jesus used the wind to illustrate. You don’t know the origin of the wind, but its effects are evident. In the same way, spiritual birth can’t be seen, but the transformation is unmistakable.

Spiritual birth occurs at the moment of sincere belief. I believed in Jesus when I was nine years old. The transformation wasn’t hugely evident in the following days and months, but over forty years, the wind of God’s Spirit has altered everything.

Those who believe in Jesus (“the Son”) receive eternal life and have no judgment against them because Jesus came not to condemn but to save. This is good news!

Jesus foreshadowed how salvation would be accomplished with an Old Testament reference. In Numbers 21:4-9, the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people of Israel because they complained. Many people were bitten and died. When Moses interceded for the people, God instructed him to make a bronze replica of a snake and attach it to a pole. The people were to look at it to be healed.

As the snake replica was lifted on a pole and the Israelites found healing, Jesus would be lifted on a cross so we could, by faith, find salvation in Him. As pastor, R. C. Sproul said, “It is the good news that snake-bitten people, people infected by a poison that goes to the depth of their souls, can look to the cross and find salvation.”12

God loved us so much that He sent Jesus to save us from sin. Yet we must believe in Him. This belief must move beyond a superficial longing for His works to a sincere faith that trusts His Word.

Today, we focused on this truth: Jesus makes a distinction between sincere and superficial belief.

11. Wiersbe, 52.

12. Sproul, 44.