John 3:1-12 (Teaching)

[0:00] Good morning. Good morning. Back in the Gospel of John this morning. Starting in chapter 3 of the Gospel of John.

[0:12] Last week when we wrapped up chapter 2, it's a rather exciting chapter in the scripture. Jesus goes into the temple, into the courts, cleans houses, we call it nowadays. He overchanges the money or overturns the money changers tables and chases people out with a whip and all that good stuff. It's exciting stuff.

[0:40] But when we go into John chapter 3, something that's very important as well as the following few chapters in John, something that's very important is the context that these chapters are written in. And they're all written in the context of the last few verses of John chapter 2.

[1:04] So we'll reread those. I won't expose it if you'd like to call it that. On those verses again. But we will reread those going into these next few chapters. So John chapter 2, starting in verse 22, says, before he was risen from the dead, his disciples remember that he said this unto them, that they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said. Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover and the feast day, many believed in his name when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men and needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man.

[1:52] And he ended last week with me saying basically that Jesus didn't need anybody coming to him, telling him about any particular man or any group of men or women for that matter. Jesus already knew. And that's the context that we need to read the next few chapters in. Because we have individual accounts of Jesus speaking to specific persons. John chapter 3, Jesus is speaking to a man named Nicodemus. We're all very familiar with this. You won't find anywhere in the scripture a verse more quoted than John 3, 16.

[2:28] Nor do I personally think that you'll find in the scripture a line that is more preached than you must be born again. Both of those are found in John chapter 3, but he was speaking to an individual. John chapter 4, he meets the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman at the well. John chapter 5, there's a man at the pool of Bethesda that he has a one-on-one conversation with. And all of them fall in this context of John chapter 2 where it says he needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. And so keep that in mind as we go through these next few chapters. I know where I'd like to get today in John 3, and I really don't think that we're going to get as far as I'd like to, and that's fine.

[3:16] We'll begin at John chapter 3 and verse 1. With what exactly a Pharisee was in the scripture, a Pharisee was an elite person of the Jews, an elite religious leader. Pharisees had consecrated themselves, I won't say they were consecrated by God, but they had consecrated themselves to keep the entire law. And according to Jewish tradition and some Jewish literature, there are 613 laws that we're talking about. They had said that they would keep 2 of T, and plus they had written other laws and come up with other things on their own that they were supposed to keep.

[4:30] So this was one of those people, this Pharisee named Nicodemus. He was one of these people that he had the Old Testament down. He knew the Old Testament well and he could probably quote more of the Old Testament than anyone nowadays certainly could, and being he was a ruler of the Jews, he could probably quote more of it than anyone else in his time. But the thing is, the Pharisees were relying on their own works and they were relying on their keeping of the law for salvation.

[5:06] And you read just a few chapters after this that Jesus, speaking to people with this mind, says he searched the Scriptures, thinking in them that you have eternal life, but they are they which testify of me.

[5:18] And he's thinking about the Old Testament. Nicodemus didn't have the New Testament. The New Testament is what we're reading right now. It was playing out at that time, but it wasn't written. So all he had was the Old Testament Scriptures.

[5:34] But even Jesus Christ himself said that the Old Testament is the Old Testament Scriptures testified of him, of Jesus Christ. Verna and I were talking the last time we went door knocking about Philip and the eunuch and how ridiculous it is that some people nowadays will say that the Old Testament is out of date that we shouldn't use the Old Testament, that we shouldn't even glance at the Old Testament.

[6:02] Folks, Philip preached Jesus Christ to a eunuch out of the book of Isaiah which is found in the Old Testament and that eunuch got saved. So don't tell me that the Old Testament is irrelevant.

[6:14] It testifies just as much of Jesus Christ as anything that you find in the New Testament. Sometimes you got to look a little deeper. But folks, the deeper that you dig in the Scriptures, whether it be Old Testament or New Testament, you will find those nuggets that have the name Jesus Christ written all over them. But this Pharisee named Nicodemus, he knew the Old Testament very well. This man would have probably been somebody that most church congregations would be tickled to death to have as their pastor nowadays. Now we think of Pharisees, when we read about Pharisees, through most of the Scriptures we think of Pharisees as arrogant men and most of them were granted. Jesus addressed that to them more than once in the Scriptures. The Pharisees are the very ones that he called hypocrites in the Scriptures. So we think of them as arrogant men. This man Nicodemus though, the Scripture here says in verse number two that he came to Jesus by night. Why did he do that?

[7:18] Well, there's a couple of different reasons why he could have done that. Most people agree that he came by night so that the rest of the Pharisees that he was associated with, there were 71 of them in the Sanhedrin Council, which I'm sure Nicodemus was part of, but most people will agree that he came to Jesus by night so that he wouldn't be seen with Jesus Christ.

[7:42] But this man was a rabbi, he was a master of Israel, he was a teacher of Israel. So most of these teachers, as we talked about back in John chapter one, even John the Baptist had his own disciples and most teachers did. So it is very plausible and very feasible, very possible that when Nicodemus came to Jesus, he had some of his students with him. Not only that, but it's very possible, and the Scriptures don't say so either way, but it's very possible that some of the disciples of Jesus Christ may have fallen witness to this encounter between Jesus Christ and Nicodemus.

[8:22] But it says they came to Jesus by night, so yes maybe it was to avoid the people that he was associated with, the rest of the Pharisees, maybe it was to avoid them seeing, or him being seen with Jesus.

[8:38] But what about another possibility? Maybe he truly wanted some answers from Jesus, and maybe the crowds were pressing Jesus because of the miracle of Canaan that happened in John chapter two.

[8:50] And maybe this was the only time that he could find that people weren't surrounding Jesus after this said miracle at the wedding in Canaan, the turning of water into wine that we read about a couple weeks ago.

[9:10] That's possibility, that's why he came to Jesus. And I say all this to say this, don't close your mind to just one possibility.

[9:22] Now, that being said, salvation is only one way, and that's through Jesus Christ. And I'm very close minded as that goes. But these other smaller things, like we're talking about this morning, it is possible that Nicodemus came by night to avoid being seen by the other Pharisees, or by anybody that might tell on him. However, you'd like to phrase that.

[9:42] But it's also another very good possibility that this man was truly seeking answers. I mean, it says here then the same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, he refers to him as Rabbi, as teacher.

[9:58] And he recognizes that he's from God, that Jesus is from God. But there's one bad mistake in Nicodemus calling Jesus Rabbi. There's a huge mistake on Nicodemus' part. He was putting Jesus Christ on the same level that he himself was on, that Nicodemus was on.

[10:18] Nicodemus was also a Rabbi. He was a teacher. The scripture here a little bit later on, we may get to it this morning, we may not. But Jesus refers to him as a teacher of Israel, a master of Israel.

[10:30] But the original Greek has the teacher of Israel. I mean, he was way up the ladder as far as his knowledge went and as far as his following would have went. He knew more than likely, more than anybody else in the Sanhedrin about the Old Testament scriptures. Now he's saying that's a fact and you can't find that Nicodemus did in any Jewish literature.

[10:54] Not even Josephus goes as far as to say that. Famous Jewish historian. But he knew his stuff. We can settle on that. He knew his stuff. It says the same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that there were a teacher come from God. He puts him on the same plane as himself by calling him Rabbi. But he says you are a teacher come from God and he tells wife for no man can do these miracles that they'll do us to accept God be with him.

[11:22] This tells me that Nicodemus had a different mindset than the rest of the Pharisees did. Because you read not too awful far from here in the scriptures as far as the different gospel accounts go.

[11:34] Where the Pharisees and the scribes are the very ones accusing Jesus of having a demon and that his works are off the devil himself or off Satan. So this tells me that Nicodemus has a different mindset than the rest of the the the Pharisee crowd did. Once again, chapter 2 and verse 25, Jesus needed not that any should testify man for he knew what was in man. This is why we must keep this in that context at the end of John chapter 2. He knew what was in Nicodemus. Just like he knows what's within me he knows what's within you. He knows what's inside of every man and every woman and every child, every boy, every girl.

[12:18] Jesus Christ knows these things. And Nicodemus here it shows that he had a different mindset, had a different take on Jesus Christ. Albeit it wasn't perfect. It was far from perfect. Just like my take on Jesus Christ isn't perfect and yours isn't perfect. But he had a different take on Jesus Christ than the rest of the Pharisees did. John 3 and verse 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. Well somebody showed me in John 3 and verse 2 where Nicodemus even asked a question. It says Jesus answered him. But there was no question asked. And really not a whole lot as far as we can tell to do with what Jesus said.

[13:06] But Jesus knew what was in Nicodemus and that's why he said what he did. He says accept a man be born again. Accept a man be born again. Some English translations say accept a man be born from above. Same thing.

[13:22] He's got to be born of the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God must come to that man or come to that woman. Jesus answered and said unto him Verily, Verily, I say unto thee, accept a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. We read a lot about the kingdom of God in the Scripture. In fact, the entire Gospel of Matthew is known as the Gospel of the Kingdom.

[13:46] And there's many times when Jesus is speaking in particularly parables, he'll say the kingdom of God is such as this and the kingdom of God is such as that. And we read a lot about the kingdom of God but there is no definitive definition in the entire writ of Scripture that tells exactly what the kingdom of God is. We can take bits and pieces and we can piece together in our own minds what exactly the kingdom of God is but nowhere does it give a definitive definition of what it is just like faith. Faith is the exact same way in the Scripture. However, there is a definition given finally. But you read about faith through the Old Testament. You read about people's faith and you read about the Old Testament patriarch's faith in the New Testament. But you don't find a definition of faith until you get to Hebrews chapter 11 where it says faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.

[14:42] That's where we find out what faith really is. But nowhere else in the Scripture does it give us a definition. But nowhere in the Scripture do we have an absolute definition of the kingdom of God. But we can take the bits and pieces that we have and figure for ourselves what the kingdom of God is and whatever you come up with and whatever I come up with as long as it's Scripture based I can promise you it is much more than anything that we can come up with in our own minds. We get a very vague picture in our own minds and our finite minds of what the kingdom of God is. But Nicodemus here, he had his own idea of what the kingdom of God was and he had his own idea of how he was going to get there.

[15:30] How he was going to get there was by keeping the law and keeping it to a T making sure all of his eyes were dotted making sure all his T's were crossed and that's what he was depending on to get there. And Jesus Christ knew that about him just like Jesus Christ knew and knows everything about everyone on the planet right now.

[15:50] So he says accept a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus says 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? So Nicodemus asks a legitimate question here. How can this happen? How can a man, a full grown man, he knows he doesn't say child, he doesn't even say baby, he doesn't say infant. He says how can a man be born again? How can a man do this things you're talking about? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? And again this is a very legitimate question that he's asking but it also shows Nicodemus didn't know all that he thought that he knew.

[16:34] It shows us that in verse 5 Jesus answered very, very, I say unto thee accept a man be born of water and of the spirit. He cannot enter into the kingdom of God. So Jesus just reiterates what he said to verses previous to this. Accept a man be born again. He cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Just restating what he already had but he's answering the question that Nicodemus had at the same time. There's a whole lot of debate about this verse here. Verse 5 where it says accept a man be born of water and of the spirit. And what I've found discouragingly enough is most people believe that this is talking about the physical birth and the spiritual birth. Being born of water. In other words the amniotic fluid that follows or that's there before the birth and follows after birth.

[17:30] Most people go along those lines but folks that's not true. In fact if you read this in the original Greek it's nowhere even close to that. But that can't be what it's talking about because there's all of us in here have heard of stillborn babies. I mean that's giving birth to a dead child. So it can't be talking about a physical birth. I'm persuaded that at the moment of conception that that child and it is a child in the womb at that point is a living being inside of there.

[18:14] That child has a soul at that point. I'm convinced and I'm persuaded of that. Now something happens a month later, two months later and that child dies in the womb whatever the case is even several months later. Whatever it is. That child did not have a physical birth so that cannot be what this is talking about here. Other people will say moving on to another possibility here that I don't agree with. Other people will say this is talking about water baptism unless you're talking about that Jesus is saying unless someone is baptized and born of the Spirit then they cannot see or they cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Well folks there's all kinds of Scripture that refutes that. There's all kinds of times and just in the Gospel of John that water is brought up emblematic or symbolic of something else and not talking about water baptism. I mean if that were the case do you not think that Jesus would have referred back to John chapter one where John the Baptist was baptizing people and saying you got to be baptized just like John was doing down in the Jordan River a few days ago or however long ago it was when he was having this conversation with Nicodemus but nothing about that's brought up. But we have the mention of water there in John chapter one

[19:42] John chapter two we have the water being turned into wine. John chapter three we have the current account. John chapter four there's a woman, a Samaritan woman at the well what's she go for to draw water. John chapter five the man at the pool of Bethesda. John chapter seven Jesus Christ says he that believeth on me as the Scripture says out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Water is used all throughout the Gospel of John that's not the only time. John 19 there's a Roman soldier takes his spear and pierces Jesus' side and forthwith poured water and blood. Water is brought up time and time again throughout the Gospel of John but never once is water brought up as a means of salvation. I'm talking about physical water and any use of it there. It's not brought up in that manner but once again John chapter seven where Jesus says he that believeth on me as the Scripture says out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. He was using that as symbolic what is that living of water? If anyone believes on Jesus Christ as the

[20:46] Scripture has said to believe on Jesus Christ if they have believed and they have repented they are saved and out of their belly shall flow rivers of living water meaning what? Meaning the same living water that Jesus Christ offers the woman in the next chapter the woman at the well. The living water that he is the word of life that Jesus Christ offers and that is symbolized by water. In Psalms chapter one 19 verse 50 the psalmist says thy word hath quickened me thy word hath quickened me the word of God quickens us. 1 Peter 1 and 23 what's Peter say about that he says being born again not of corruptible seed but incorruptible seed the word of God which liveth and abideth forever and he's talking about being born again in that Scripture in 1 Peter 1 and 23 so what I believe we're talking about here when he says he must be born of water and he must be born of the Spirit. We've got to be begotten by the word

[21:50] James 1 18 specifies that we're begotten by the word of God. We are born by the word of God and the book of Romans Paul wrote how can they believe unless a preacher or how can they hear unless a preacher is sin and how would anybody believe anything if it weren't preached to them. I mean you can add that parenthetically there if you want to it's the word of God and the Spirit of God working together that gets the job done. That is how someone is born again. The word of God is preached the gospel goes forth and the Spirit of God. He does his regenerating work in those hearts that believe so hopefully that helps us with the understanding of being born of water and being born of the Spirit.

[22:42] I believe he's talking and some people say that word for water that Jesus is using here is he's talking about the Spirit well he would be restating exactly what he had said at the end that would be the same thing as saying except a man be born of Spirit and of the Spirit that don't make any sense. So he's saying be born of water and of the Spirit. Two separate things there but God Almighty using two separate things his own Spirit and his word to cause the regenerating work of salvation within an individual's heart. Verse 6 that which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of Spirit is Spirit. Here he's answering the question that Nicodemus had in verse 4 that which is born of flesh is flesh even if a man could crawl back up into his mother's womb and be born again it would still be flesh. He would still be flesh. Humans create other humans just like dogs create dogs and cats create cats. All humans can create as humans. We cannot have anything outside of that.

[23:54] I understand that ultimately God is the creator so don't y'all get me wrong when I say that. But keeping it here and this that which is born of flesh is flesh. In other words that's all we can have is flesh. I may have said it here and I may not have but when I was, when my mama had me she had nine pounds and two ounces were the sin. That's what she brought into the world and really and truly that's all any of us did.

[24:26] That's all any of you ladies when you had children. That's what we brought into the world that which is flesh is flesh and the flesh is corrupt so when we have children that's what we have. We have a fleshly being we have someone who's already corrupted but there is a way that can be solved and that way is through Jesus Christ and that way is through exactly what Jesus Christ is saying right here. That which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. In other words even if you could as a grown man crawl back up into your mama and she could give birth to you again you would still be flesh but that which is born of the Spirit that is Spirit and that is off God. That is from above. That which is spiritual is spiritual. I mean there's nothing that we can do about that.

[25:14] There's no we can't change that. There's no altering that. Verse 7, Marvel not that I said unto thee you must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but that but can'ts not tell whence it cometh and whether it goeth so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.

[25:38] So Jesus in verse 7 says Marvel not that I said unto thee you must be born again. Something else I want to point out to you all. This is an individual conversation that Jesus Christ is having with a single man.

[25:54] Like I said it's very possible some of Nicodemus' students followed him and it's very possible some of the disciples of Christ were present as well and one thing that backs that up is the fact that Jesus Christ is saying ye must be born again ye is plural. Ye is always plural when it's used in the scripture. So he was not only talking to Nicodemus but he was talking about really all of mankind here in this conversation that he was having. He could have been talking to anyone else that was present but who was Nicodemus? Again we've already been over that. He was a ruler of the Jews. He was a teacher of the Jews and people looked up to him.

[26:38] He was one that people would have went to when they had questions about the law. He was one that people would have listened to when he was teaching at the synagogue or wherever it was that he was. But Nicodemus here in this context that we're reading he was representing Israel and he didn't even know it at the time. But when we look at the scripture as a whole not just here in John chapter 3 but from Genesis to Revelation and we read in the Gospel of John chapter 1 and 2 and we get on into chapter 3 we're seeing the state that Israel was in their state of unbelief. But again the last verse of John chapter 2 Jesus knew what was in man and he knew what was in this man Nicodemus. So he says, Marvel not that I said unto the ye must be born again. Once again ye is plural meaning more than Nicodemus the one that he was having the conversation with.

[27:42] The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but can'ts not tell whence it cometh and whether it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit and every one of us in here can relate to this verse. And the natural aspect and the physical aspect ain't nobody in here knows where the wind comes from.

[28:02] I've been studying that for years, for decades, even centuries scientists have tried to figure out where the wind originates and I've seen some outlandish and far left field explanations as far as the scientific explanation as to where the wind comes from.

[28:22] And Jesus here is saying you have no control over the wind. You don't know where it comes from, you don't know where it's going and the same way with the Spirit of God. Nobody knows exactly where it's going to. We all know where the Spirit of God comes from. He comes from God but we don't know where he's going to. But this really in and of itself as a verse of Scripture should be very comforting to us who have possibly given up on people, given up on certain people for getting out of the way. It should be very comforting to us that it's not up to us where the Spirit of God goes.

[29:06] It's up to God where he goes. And the Spirit of God goes where God directs the Spirit of God goes. The Spirit of God goes where he listed, where he wants to. And just because we give up on somebody doesn't mean that God has.

[29:22] And that should be very comforting to us as Christians. There's people out there, folks, I was one of them people. I was one of people that so many Christians had given up on. They might have continued praying for me. They may not have. I don't know. I know there were some Christians praying for me when I was lost. Folks, I was lost for a long time. And that was a long time for people to give up saying, Spent your ain't never going to change. Spent your don't want God. Spent your don't want anything to do with true religion. Spent your don't want to be saved.

[29:54] And I'm positive there are people out there thinking that about me. The praise God, it's not up to them where the Spirit of God lists it. It is up to God. And God knew the exact time and the exact way to deal with me. Just as he knew the exact time, the exact way to deal with you if you're sitting here born again this morning. Verse 9, Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? How can what things be? Well, one things is plural. So we know we're talking about more than one thing. So I think Nicodemus is still confused about the whole born again concept.

[30:34] But also Jesus just said that the compared the Spirit of God with the wind saying he goes where he wants to and there ain't nothing that you can do about it. Nothing you can do to stop it.

[30:46] Nicodemus answered and said to him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel? And knowest not these things? Now once again, and I've already brought it up here where it says, Art thou a master of Israel in the original Greek, it says thee master of Israel. I'm not saying Nicodemus was God over Israel or anything along those lines, but it's stating the importance of this man Nicodemus and how high up the ladder, how high up those rungs that this man was.

[31:18] He says, Art thou a master of Israel? And knowest not these things? In other words, Jesus is saying, Shame on you. Shame on you for not understanding what I'm saying about this new birth. And folks, the new birth really wasn't a foreign concept to the Jews.

[31:38] I mean, God wrote about it in the Old Testament, maybe not as blatantly and as obviously as we read about it in the New Testament, but it's still there. I mean in Ezekiel chapter 36 where God says, I'll take that stony heart out of you and I will put in a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you. He's talking about the new birth, the spirit of God being within a person was foreign to them. The spirit of God was sent to people and he guided people in the Old Testament and he gave them strength, he gave them guidance, he gave them power, but he did not abide within. You find this in Ezekiel 36, you find it in Jeremiah 31, you find it in Joel chapter 2, you find it in several different places throughout the Scripture, 1 Samuel in chapter 10. All these things talk about the new birth, like I said, maybe not as pointedly as what we're reading about here, but that's exactly what is still being brought up here.

[32:42] It wasn't a concept unknown to the Jews, it's just that Nicodemus as smart as he was and as intelligent as he was, and as well as he knew the Old Testament Scriptures that had gotten by him. And Jesus was exposing that to him. He wasn't saying, as some of us might read this, Jesus wasn't saying you're not as smart as you think you are.

[33:06] He's saying, look deeper, he knew what was happening in this man Nicodemus, and he knew why Nicodemus was there. I'm persuaded that Nicodemus was not there to tempt Jesus, that he was not there to try and confuse Jesus or to catch Jesus in a liar, to cause Jesus to say something so that they could lay hold on him and stone him to death, or any of these other things that we read about throughout the Scriptures where the Pharisees and the scribes and the priests would try these things. I think Nicodemus was sincerely looking for answers and Jesus knew what was within him. Barely, very, I say unto thee we speak that, that we do know and testify that we have seen, and ye receive not our witness. Well who's the we? This is Jesus speaking these words if you've got a red letter Bible, it should be a red letter.

[34:02] He says, very, very, I say unto thee, something else I'd like to bring up. The Gospel of John is the only place where you find, verily, verily, used. You'll find verily used in the other Gospels, but the Gospel of John is the only place where you see Jesus say, truly, truly, verily, verily, where it's emphasized that second time that's only found in the Gospel of John. Barely, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we do know and testify that we have seen.

[34:30] What have I just got through talking about here about the Old Testament Scriptures, about the writer of 1 Samuel and Joel and Jeremiah and Ezekiel? I think this is the we that Jesus is speaking of.

[34:46] I myself and the prophets have spoken of these things. I myself and the Old Testament writers, we've spoken about these things. He says, we speak that we do know and why would these prophets and why would the Old Testament writers have known these things? They would have known it from because it was given to them from above. It was given to them by God. You see, over and over in the prophets where God spoke unto me, God said this unto me, you read this in Daniel, you read it in Ezekiel, you read it in Isaiah, you read it in Jeremiah, you read it in all these prophets, and the word of the Lord came unto me. It was given them from above.

[35:30] This word was given them from above. That's why Jesus could say, we speak that we do know. We, meaning He and the prophets. And that we have seen and ye receive not our witness. In other words, Jesus said I know what I'm talking about. And the prophets knew what they were talking about because I'm sent from God and the word the word of God was sent to them. And they spoke it exactly as it was given to them. So we know what we're saying. We know our stuff and we know what we've seen. And the prophets as far as what they've seen, they'd seen the work of God in their lives. They'd seen the miracles of God. They'd seen some of them had visions that God had given them. They had seen so much that God from above had given them to see.

[36:22] So that's why I believe Jesus spoke these words. We speak that we do know and testify that we have seen. And ye, once again, that word ye is plural. Not just Nicodemus, but ye and all of Israel. And fast forward to the rest of us and all of mankind. You receive not our witness.

[36:42] You receive not our witness. This makes me think of the parable that Jesus spoke of Lazarus and the rich man. Where the rich man's in hell. And he begs Lazarus to send one to his brothers. He said if they see one raised from the dead, they might believe.

[37:02] He said if they believe not Moses, nor the prophets, they won't believe one that's raised from the dead either. Of course that was a parable that Jesus spoke talking about his own death as well. Because Jesus rose from the grave. Did he not praise God that he did? There wouldn't be no reason for us to be assembled here this morning.

[37:26] But that verse makes me think of that. Verse 12, if I have told you earthly things and you believe not, how so you believe if I tell you of heavenly things?

[37:38] So he says I've told you about these earthly things. I've told you about the wind. I've told you about how it goes where it listed. And he also explained that that's the exact way that the Spirit of God works.

[37:50] But he says if I've told you earthly things and you believe not, he doesn't say understand if I've told you these earthly things and you believe not. How so you believe if I tell you of heavenly things?

[38:06] Nothing to do with understanding to the utmost here. Nothing to do with fully grasping what Jesus is saying. Jesus simply said you must be born again. You must be born again. Did I understand that when I was lost? No.

[38:22] Do I completely understand it now that I'm saved? No. But I know that it happened. How do I know that that happened? How do I know that I've experienced a rebirth? Because I'm not what I used to be.

[38:34] I'm not who I used to be. When I was born into the family of God, there was a change. There was a change that took place in me.

[38:46] And folks, it's no different if you look at the natural side of it and you look at the spiritual side of it. There's no different. Just as Jesus said, that which is flesh is flesh and that which is spirit is spirit.

[38:58] So when I was born into my natural family, I inherited characteristics from my mama. I inherited characteristics from my daddy. Certain things, maybe my nose, maybe my eyes, maybe my hairline. Who knows what I inherited from who? I could tell you. But when we're born into the family of God, we inherit characteristics we are given. We are imputed characteristics from God to us. And therefore we act more like godly people. We dress more like godly people. We talk more like godly people. Because we are godly people.

[39:38] So Jesus saying, if I told you earthly things and you believe in God, how so you believe if I tell you of heavenly things? Verse 13, no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man, which is in heaven.

[39:54] That's when we're going to hit next week. So with all that said, I'm going to wrap that up because I ain't going to get any deeper right now. Anybody got any questions or comments on any of that?

[40:06] Anything at all? Alright God bless y'all. I appreciate your attention. Appreciate you bro.