Beauty Beyond the Stone Jars

Nicodemus' bad reputation is undeserved.

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Transcript

Beautiful Things Beyond the Stone Jars

by Eric Engelmann

All content © 2023 Static Force, LLC

WHEN are we?

During the ministry of Jesus when He talks with a Pharisee named Nicodemus in John chapter 3. Maybe about 27 AD. According to the book of John, this is after the wedding at Cana in Galilee where Jesus turned the water from stone jars into wine.

Where are we?

Probably Capernaum. It's on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee; roughly 10 miles east by northeast of Cana. North of Jacob's Well and way north of Jerusalem.

Why are we here now?

We're going to talk about some ripple effects of Jesus' signs and miracles -- including the sign of turning water into wine.

In the third chapter of John, there's a Pharisee named Nicodemus. I think Nicodemus gets a bad reputation in our time for his conversation with Jesus. The bad reputation is undeserved. Some people will say Nicodemus refused to follow Jesus as signified by coming to talk to Jesus at night.

Some History

In the Old Testament, when Moses was sent away from the burning bush, he was given three signs to perform in front of people. One sign was to make his hand leprous and then make it clean again. The second sign was to throw his staff down and it would become a snake. The third was to take water from the Nile and it would become blood.

Before the time of John 3, Jesus didn't make blood from water -- he made wine. Also before John 3, Jesus had already told Philip to follow Him. He told Andrew to come and see. He told Simon that his new name would be Peter.

There are lots of good riddles In this passage.  Nicodemus asks a good question about being born again.

The Scripture

I'd like you to listen for "follow" and "believe".

John 3:1-18

Verse 1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 

2 The same came to him 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.”

NOTE: This is where Nicodemus gets a bad rap thousands of years later. Coming by night implies he was ashamed to come to Jesus by day. I’m not sure he was ashamed – I think he was practical. Later in Jesus' ministry there will come times when Jesus will be hard to reach because people will want to throw rocks at Him.

Verse 3 Jesus answered him, “Most certainly, I tell you, unless one is born anew, he can’t see God’s Kingdom.”

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?”

5 Jesus answered, “Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he can’t enter into God’s Kingdom. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Don’t marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born anew.’ 8 The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but don’t know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

9 Nicodemus answered him, “How can these things be?”

10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and don’t understand these things? 11 Most certainly I tell you, we speak that which we know, and testify of that which we have seen, and you don’t receive our witness.

12 If I told you earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 

13 No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven. 

14 As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 

15 that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him. 

18 He who believes in him is not judged. He who doesn’t believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.”

End of the passage.

– John 3:1-18

How many times did "believe" occur? I count 7 times.

How many times did "follow" occur? I count 0 times.

Here's the point: in this conversation Jesus talked more about "believing" than "following". 

Even though Jesus said, "You don't receive our witness", He never commanded Nicodemus to follow Him. He was giving Nicodemus some things to believe.

In the future

Probably within a matter of months, Jesus will talk to a Samaritan woman about which mountain the Father is seeking worship from.

Later, in John 7, Nicodemus will speak up for Jesus in front of his fellow Pharisees and point out a work of righteousness the Pharisees might do – that Nicodemus himself had performed in John 3. He asked them, “Does our law judge a man, unless it first hears from him personally and knows what he does?”

May the willingness to listen to Jesus continue to grow in the earth in times to come.

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