John 3:1-3 (NKJV) 1 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
This section of scripture is one of the most well known and most misunderstood in the bible. What is this really talking about? Our theme for this year is “being a supernatural people living in the natural world.” We know from Jesus’ prayer in John 17 that we are not of this world just as Jesus was not of this world. We also know that Jesus did not ask the father to take us out of the world but asked that he protect us from the devil while we live here. Jesus was a supernatural man. We are to be a supernatural people. Jesus lived a supernatural life in the world. We are to live supernatural lives in the world.
Supernatural does not necessarily mean spectacular. Parting the Red Sea was a spectacular and supernatural act. However, Israel’s cloths did not wear out for 40 years. Although that was spectacular in retrospect, it was not spectacular as it happened. They simply wore the same clothes over and over. Putting on cloths is a natural thing to do. However, they put on the same clothes for 40 years. This was a natural act with a supernatural touch.
The conception of both Isaac and Jesus were spectacular events in that one happened to people to old for children and one happened without the aid of a human male. From that point on, the pregnancy and birth were exactly like every other pregnancy and birth throughout history. They were natural acts with a supernatural touch.
Sometimes we will see spectacular things such as healings and miracles. I believe what we need to understand is that everything we do can have that supernatural touch. From working in our job to raising our children, we should expect a touch of the supernatural. From our relationships in the home to our interaction with people in the world, we need the touch of the supernatural to be successful.
What makes us truly supernatural people? Today’s scripture points us to the real source of our supernatural life. We read the bible with foreknowledge of what it says. Most Christians know the story of Nicodemus who came to Jesus by night. He was a Pharisee. He was educated in the Jewish scriptures. He had also seen and heard Jesus. He could not escape that there was something different about this man. He went to him with honest questions about his teaching.
We can see from his initial statement that he respects Jesus. The first words Jesus speaks to him are beyond his understanding. They do not seem to speak to anything Nicodemus has said up to this point. We hear them in the context of our understanding of the bible. Most people hear them just as Nicodemus did.
John 3:4 (NKJV) 4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
What can it possible mean to be born again? We know that it is a physical impossibility to enter the womb of your mother a second time. It almost seems like a ridiculous statement. Jesus’ answer seems to confuse poor Nicodemus even more. However, in these few words Jesus lays out exactly what this term means.
John 3:5-8 (NKJV) 5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter 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 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Jesus wants Nicodemus to understand that the first birth was the physical birth. It happened because of the union between a physical man and a physical woman. The person that was produced carried all of the attributes of their parents. Man was not supposed to be a physical creation only. John 4:24 tells us that God is spirit. Man was created in the “image and likeness of God.” Therefore, man is also spirit.
In creation, God clothed man’s spirit in flesh so that he could live in the physical world. I do not want to go into a detailed discussion of creation but we must understand what happened to man to understand what Jesus is telling us here in John 3. Man was created as the family of God. He was like God in that he was created a spirit being. He was not like God in that he was limited. He lived in a natural world.
God gave Adam dominion over the natural world. He was to exercise that dominion by tapping into the supernatural world of the spirit. His source of life was that world, not the natural world. He was a supernatural person living in a natural world.
In Genesis 3 something happened that changed man in a fundamental way. The bible tells us that Eve partook of the fruit that had been forbidden to man. Adam, not wanting to lose her, followed her into this sin. The result was catastrophic.
Genesis 3:17-19 (NKJV) 17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. 18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. 19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”
Something changed in man as a result of eating that forbidden fruit. What we read in these verses is not a statement of God’s displeasure. What happens to man is not punishment for committing a wrong action. It is a result brought about by a cause. God told man that if he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he would die. The Hebrew comes out more clearly. It says that if Adam ever ate of that tree “in dying he would surely die.” Adam’s physical death was the second death mentioned. The first death was something else entirely.
Something supernatural happened to Adam and Eve in the Garden. They were created by God to be supernatural people in the natural world. They were to have dominion over the world. How were they to do that? Adam was not a superman capable of flying or super strength. He could not kill a lion or a bear any easier than we could. He did not have to. He dominated the world he lived in because he was a spirit. His spirit was joined to God in spirit. He was alive by that union. The fall severed that tie.
What happened to man the moment he ate of the fruit of that tree was that his spirit died. This did not mean it ceased to exist. A spirit cannot cease to exist. This means that the life connection between man and God was severed and man became a natural being living in the natural world. Physical death was just an inevitable manifestation of the spiritual death they suffered the moment they ate of the tree.
The life that man was created to live was taken from him. The curse spoken in verses 17-19 was a result of losing that vital connection. The limitations of natural life led to every negative thing in the human experience. Thank God that he did not choose to leave his family in this condition. What was his solution? It was what Jesus said to Nicodemus. “You must be born again!”
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