At certain times, Jesus especially wants people to pay particular attention to exactly what He’s saying. When He doesn’t want His crucial words to pass by unnoticed, He’ll say: “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

WHEN YOU HEAR JESUS SAY THESE WORDS, PAY CAREFUL ATTENTION!

Three times in our Gospel, Jesus says those exact words. Three times, He wants Nicodemus and all hearers to pay attention to what He says.

Nicodemus approaches Jesus under the cover of darkness. He wants a secret conversation with the Lord. He doesn’t want his associates to see him talking with this guy from Nazareth. After all, can anything good come from there? Nicodemus is blinded by the world’s darkness. He doesn’t know the things of God. In the dark, Nicodemus comes to the one who is the Light of the world. How will this encounter with the Light affect Nicodemus?

Nicodemus is a Pharisee—a strict Jewish sect that holds to the “Tradition of the Elders.” Pharisees revel in their own self-declared self-righteousness. Nicodemus believes he can get to heaven through his own efforts of keeping the Law. He thinks that He’s doing a really good job of it. He’s also a “ruler of the Jews,” which means that he’s a member of the Jewish Council. As a Pharisee and Council member, he likely plays a prominent role in teaching the people.

Nicodemus heaps praise on Jesus, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs you do unless God is with Him.” You see, Jesus has been in Jerusalem for the Passover festival, and He has been doing miraculous signs. Nicodemus may want Jesus to compliment him, because he recognizes the signs to be God’s work. He knows Jesus must be a teacher from God (like a prophet). Nicodemus expects Jesus to say, “Good job! You’ve figured me out. You’re doing well.” But that’s not what Jesus says.

Rather, Jesus slams the door in his face. He excludes Nicodemus from God’s kingdom, so that Nicodemus may hear the true way of salvation by which God brings people into His kingdom. The Lord tells him, “Truly, truly, I say to you (pay attention Nicodemus and listen everyone to what Jesus says), unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Ouch! Jesus says, “Nicodemus, not only are you far from the kingdom of God, but you can’t even see it. You think you’ve got me all figured out, but you don’t even understand the way of salvation by which one sees the kingdom. You think God is proud of you because you happen to be a Jew. You think you’ve done something special because you are circumcised. You think you’ve earned God’s blessings because you think you can obey your way into God’s kingdom. None of these will even let you see the kingdom!”

Nicodemus hears “born again” and asks, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Nicodemus has in mind physical birth. Whether he asks the question out of ignorance or if he’s trying to show some sort of absurdity in Jesus’ statement we can’t know for sure. Either way, his rhetorical question about physical birth requires a “No” answer. Obviously, a man can’t enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be physically born again when he’s old. That’s silly. So, instead of answering the questions, Jesus develops His point.

Jesus first said, “Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Next, He tweaks the same teaching a bit. “Truly, truly, I say to you (pay attention Nicodemus and listen everyone to what Jesus says), unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” Rather than saying, “born again,” He says “born of water and the Spirit.” Instead of saying, “see the kingdom of God,” he says, “enter the kingdom of God.”

Here, we discover what Jesus means by saying “born again.” The Greek word (like many words in English) has multiple definitions. “Born again” can mean reborn. Understood correctly, this is a possible definition. Many translations use this definition.

There’s another just as accurate translation. Jesus has said that one is “born of water and the Holy Spirit.” These two can’t be separated. Just as the water and the Word of Baptism can’t be separated, so the water and the Spirit of Baptism can’t be separated. Water and Spirit, water and Word are the elements of Baptism. What happens in Baptism? One is born of water and the Spirit. Because the Spirit is God, another way the phrase can be translated is born “from above.” Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born from above of water and the Spirit, he can’t enter or even see the kingdom of God.”

This new birth isn’t physical rebirth. It’s a spiritual birth worked by the Holy Spirit. Jesus explains, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” We were born of the flesh, having been born of flesh and blood parents.

Part of what pertains to the flesh of Adam and Eve’s descendants is sinfulness. You and I were born sinners. “In sin did my mother conceive me,” says David. “You were born in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked,” says Paul. He also says, “For to set the mind on the flesh is death.” To set the mind on the flesh is to sin. And to sin is to die. This is the reason that Jesus says one must be born of water and the Spirit. All people are born dead in sin, and God desires that we receive life (new birth) in the Spirit.

Being born of water and the Spirit (a birth from above) is the way of salvation by which God brings people into His kingdom. We don’t need to wonder at this working of God the way Nicodemus did. After all, the Spirit works the same way that the wind does. We can’t see it. Even with modern weather technology we can barely tell where it’s going. For example, put it on the Weather Channel this hurricane season, and you will see many models of possible directions where a hurricane may go.

So it is with the Spirit. We can’t see Him or know where He’s headed. But we hear Him in the Gospel, because the Word and Spirit always go together. We see His effect in Baptism, when people are born from above of water and the Spirit. Baptism is a spiritual birth brought about by the Holy Spirit. Word, Spirit, water is the way of salvation by which God brings people into the kingdom. The new birth happens in a person’s heart here on earth. It is an “earthly thing.” Repentance, Baptism, and faith happen on earth (People’s Bible Commentary: John).

Nicodemus doesn’t understand. He asks: “How can these things be?” So, Jesus sharply rebukes him! “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?” If Nicodemus really is an expert in Scripture as he claims to be, then he should understand. His lack of understanding shows he doesn’t grasp the way of salvation. He doesn’t understand that one must receive new birth by the Spirit. He’s been clinging to the false notion that he can earn salvation.

But Nicodemus should understand what Jesus is teaching, because it’s the theme of the Old Testament. He should know passages like, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.” Ezekiel 11:19 says, “And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:25-27, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you.”

Nicodemus doesn’t understand the earthly side of how a person is brought into the kingdom of God. Now Jesus is going to speak of heavenly things. He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you (pay attention Nicodemus and listen everyone to what Jesus says), we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.” Jesus speaks of Himself, but who else? Some think it’s Jesus and John the Baptist. Others suggest it’s Jesus, John, and the Old Testament prophets. Others suggest it’s the Triune God. It could be that all those possibilities are true, because John and the Prophets were sent to proclaim the messages of the Triune God.

Here’s the heavenly thing to ponder. Jesus says, “No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven.” Martin Luther says, “Jesus calls Himself the Son of Man who has His existence both on earth and in heaven simultaneously.” My mind can’t understand it, but I’m not God and Jesus is. So, I’m going to receive and rejoice in His witness. Jesus (the Son of Man) came from heaven for a specific purpose—to be the Savior.

As a consequence of their sin, God sent venomous snakes to the Israelites. When they cried for mercy, God provided salvation. He had Moses make a bronze snake statue and hang it on a pole. Any Israelite bitten by a snake could look at the snake statue and live. They weren’t saved by a work. they were saved through faith in God’s promise.

The bronze snake points to Jesus. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.” If God saved those who looked at a bronze serpent on a pole, how much more will He save us from sin and death as we look to His Son, by whose suffering and death we are saved? His resurrection provides the proof.

This is Jesus’ answer to Nicodemus’ question of how being born from water and the Spirit can bring us into the kingdom of God. His work on the cross causes it. A commentator states it so well: “Everyone who would look in faith at Jesus would be saved from the bite of eternal death and have eternal life. This is the life that begins with the new birth by the Spirit.” Dear saints, the Baptism of water and the Spirit that you have received, is a Baptism into Christ Himself. It’s a Baptism through which you are born anew as God’s blessed children.

Jesus teaches Nicodemus that He has come as a gift from the Father to save. You have been brought into His salvation by faith through water and the Holy Spirit who lives in you. You have been born from above. Jesus shuts the door on Nicodemus and his good works, so that Nicodemus’ eyes may be opened to behold Jesus as Savior.

What happened to Nicodemus after that encounter with Jesus? Scripture says, “Joseph of Arimathea… asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 75 pounds in weight.” Nicodemus appears to have received birth from above (the same birth from above that we have received from the Holy Spirit), through the work of Jesus, who was sent from the Father.

By the Spirit’s work, Nicodemus paid careful attention to Jesus’ words. And by the work of the Spirit, you do the same! Amen.