Sitting Down with Jesus: Nicodemus and the New Birth

Introduction

"If you could spend an hour at a restaurant with any person, living or dead, whom would you choose?" When the preacher asks Christians this question, he forbids them to answer "Jesus," because that is the official answer. And yet, he admits, "it would still be pretty fascinating to spend an hour with Jesus." Some people had that privilege: the Bible records occasions when Jesus spoke one on one with someone.

This message was given on a baptism morning. The church is following a series that runs "a bit backwards": it began the year with "running toward the goal," all the way into the arms of the heavenly Father; it then slowed down to "walk by the Spirit"; and now it comes to sit down with the Son. Usually the Christian life goes the other way: you settle in Jesus, you learn to walk with him by the Spirit, then you run with perseverance until you meet him face to face. But life is not linear, it is cyclical, and it is always good to return to the starting point. "A baptism day is a day to go back to the basics. And the basics of our faith is a quiet conversation, sitting down with Jesus."

That conversation is the one with Nicodemus, in John 3. The preacher had already quoted it the week before, taking only verse 8: "The wind blows where it wants to." He takes it up here in full, verses 1 to 18, in a translation you will not find anywhere, since it blends the Semeur version and Parole vivante.

Message Outline

1. Nicodemus Comes by Night

• Nicodemus is a member of the great council, the religious authority, one of the leading figures of the Jewish nation. In every depiction, we picture an old gentleman sitting in the semi-darkness with Jesus. It really was at night: he was probably afraid of his peers, because his colleagues said of this rabbi that he was "not someone you associate with," that he had not gone through "religious Sciences Po" like them.
• But Nicodemus recognizes something extraordinary in Jesus. He greets him this way: "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" (John 3:2). Even Jesus' enemies admitted that he performed miracles they could not explain.
• It is a declaration of faith, but a rather timid one. And Nicodemus has not even asked a question yet when Jesus answers: "Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born anew, he can't see the Kingdom of God" (John 3:3). Strange: it seems to come out of nowhere. What does that have to do with miracles? Jesus is talking about something else entirely, and it unsettles this great man.
• "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb, and be born?" (John 3:4). Nicodemus is intrigued: Jesus is speaking of a new, authentic spiritual life. That interests him. But how does it work?

2. Born from Above: Two Subtleties of the Greek

• First subtlety: in Greek, one and the same expression means both "again" and "from above." Those who have studied music know the Italian "da capo": from the beginning, and literally "from the head." The head is the top; from above means from the beginning. Jesus says: "You can start over from zero." And not only can you: you must. "You must be born again."
• "Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he can't enter into the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:5-6). Natural birth only passes on natural human life. Only a spiritual birth can pass on the life of the Spirit. To enter this kingdom, you need a key, and the key is this breath.
• Second subtlety: in Greek, the word for breath means both wind and spirit. Jesus is playing on words here. The wind blows over the earth as it pleases, no one controls it, even today. And God wants to breathe into your spiritual lungs as he sees fit, without you being in control.
• This is reminiscent of the creation story: God breathes into the man's nostrils to make him a living being (Genesis 2:7). Jesus evokes a similar process, in which the man or woman who already exists receives a new breath and awakens to a world they had not yet seen.
• "Seeing the Kingdom of God": the expression means many things in Jesus' mouth, but it is synonymous with living with God for eternity, in a state of grace and joy beyond imagining.
• The preacher remembers his own new birth, at age 20. He had already read the Bible, but when he reread it afterward, he saw plenty of things he had absolutely not seen in the same verses: "Ah, that's what it means." He had entered a new world and was taking his first steps in a kingdom that begins now. That morning, the church had just celebrated someone's entry into this kingdom, Inès, by symbolizing a death and a rebirth.

3. The Son of Man, the Link Between Heaven and Earth

• Nicodemus asks his question again: it is all very beautiful, but how? Jesus answers with a "little scolding": "Are you the teacher of Israel, and don't understand these things?" (John 3:10). You are supposed to teach the nations spiritual realities, and you don't know how. If you are a spiritual teacher, you must master the things of heaven. You teach what you truly know.
• "No one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven" (John 3:13). To teach the reality of heavenly things, we need someone who comes from there, who knows this invisible beyond. Otherwise, we grope in the dark.
• Jesus had this strange way of calling himself "the Son of Man"; no one other than him uses this term. Basically, he is saying: I am the true man, the authentic one, the perfect representative of humanity, and I am heavenly. In my person, I have brought together God, heaven, God's domain, and earth, the domain of human beings. I am the link between these two realities, visible and invisible, heavenly and earthly.
• "So either it is extremely presumptuous, or it is true. We have to choose."
• Then Jesus fixes on a strange object: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:14-15). More and more strange. What is this serpent on a pole?

4. The Bronze Serpent: A Bite We Underestimate

• Jesus refers to a curious episode in the book of Numbers (Numbers 21:4-9). The Hebrew people, freed from slavery in Egypt, wander in the desert. And in this wandering, they grumble and complain against God, because in their view God is not doing enough. Life in the desert was grueling, and they came to tell themselves that they had been better off as slaves, forgetting the hard parts. One day, God grows tired of their attitude and sends venomous snakes. Some Israelites die, others fall ill. "When God decides to teach a lesson, he does not go lightly."
• The people come to Moses: "We have sinned." You might say: hold on, grumbling against God is not that serious. The preacher admits it has happened to him too. But we do not realize the seriousness of what the Bible calls sin. We do not realize that there is a bite that is fatal.
• Evil is often represented in the Bible by a serpent: an animal that hides, that slips in subtly, and then, bang, it bites. Too late, we are infected, a poison enters our veins and we will never be able to get rid of it. "It's a virus, it spreads." We must make efforts to limit the spread of evil in our lives, but making efforts does not mean we will overcome it. We are infected for life.
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau said that man is fundamentally good. The preacher looks at his own children, whom he loves immensely: he does not have to teach them to do silly things. He has to teach them not to hit each other, not to insult each other, to share. "Man is not naturally good. It is madness to believe that."
• Our problem is that we underestimate evil, not that we overestimate it. It is exactly like the ecological crises: we terribly underestimate the human impact on the planet because it is too uncomfortable to really consider. These are inconvenient truths.
• Of course, we should try to improve ourselves. But there is a catastrophe in our lives: we do not naturally have this breath from heaven. So we need a savior. Humanity goes from one crisis to the next. Thirty years ago, at the dawn of the internet, people said it would bring peace to the world. "Have you seen the effects? It's the opposite."
• God's solution is disarmingly simple. Moses makes a metal serpent, and God says: whoever has been bitten and fixes his gaze on this serpent will live. Strange, but imagine the relief: no rite to perform, no money to pay, no animal sacrifice, just sitting quietly and looking. Isn't that good news?

5. Jesus Lifted Up on the Cross, Made Sin for Us

• What does this have to do with Jesus? "Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up." He, the heavenly man, is going to be nailed to a pole and lifted up. If we look at him with trust, and that is what we call faith, we will live. Not only the present life: we will lose our body one day, but we will enter this new territory, this spiritual life that leads to eternity with God, in glory, in inexpressible joy, beyond words. And all this for a simple look.
• But wait a moment: the Bible says Jesus was perfect. How can the one who never committed evil be compared to a serpent, which represents evil? The Bible explains: God made Jesus become sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). What does that mean? It is simple: "He's a sponge that takes evil into himself." On the cross, he took into himself not only the nails, but all the evil of humanity.
• Just as he took the lashes without resisting, without crying out, just as he accepted the nails, the mockery, the crown on his head, the most complete humiliation, he accepted taking on evil. And he says: "I'll take yours, if you want me to."
• The preacher loves the Salvador Dalí painting in which we see Jesus above the world, holding back the darkness. "I invite you, whoever you are, to sit down and contemplate Jesus. Look at what he did, with trust, and you can be born again."
• No other religion in the world offers such a simple plan. Elsewhere, you have to make pilgrimages, do this, do that. And precisely because it is too simple and asks too little effort, we reject it: "No, I'm going to show that I can do better than that." With a little realism, we know we cannot save ourselves. With a little humility, we can admit it. And that is exactly what we need: a little humility.

6. God So Loved the World: A Strong Love, Not a Sentimental One

• We arrive at one of the best-known verses in the Bible: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only born Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16). No one is like him. God tells us: receive love.
• This God whom we may be groping for in the dark is full of love. "I can testify to it." But it is not a sentimental love that would say: "It's no big deal, do whatever you want, I'll clean up everything you've broken afterward." That is not how a real parent loves. It is a strong love, a love that challenges and says: "Yes, the situation is serious, but I commit myself for you. I enter into evil, I take it on myself, because I love this world with its stubborn, rebellious, resistant inhabitants. So here is what I want you to do: trust me and get into the boat with me."
• That is the key: the key is God's love. The apostle Paul marvels at the width, length, height, and depth of the love of Christ, and he prays that we may grasp it (Ephesians 3:18-19). It is also the preacher's prayer for each one: to be seized by this love, because what this good news affirms is "God loves you this much."
• And there something mysterious happens that we do not control. Each of those who know the Lord has a slightly different story, with things in common: a breath that comes from heaven, sometimes very light, sometimes a hurricane. For some, it is sudden; for the preacher, it was. Often it comes after a fierce struggle against our own will ("no, I'm the one in control of my life"), until the moment we say: "OK, really, yes, I let God be in control of my life."
• For others, it is much more gradual. When you grew up in a Christian home, you have known these things since childhood, and one day you realize that you actually love God, that you say sentences like "I want to give you my life" without knowing where it comes from. It comes from a little divine breath that was planted in us, and we notice: actually, it's there.
• The text goes on: "For God didn't send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him. 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 only born Son of God" (John 3:17-18). God's heart is that everyone be saved: he does not wish anyone to die.
• But if we do not do it, we are condemned, because we do not escape the serpent's bite. We are all like Israel in the desert, and evil will eventually get us. Before God, we are guilty of plenty of things we prefer to sweep under the rug: that little curt word said to your wife or husband this morning, that tiny lie to get yourself out of a bind, or the big ones, that look at another man's wife when you know, deep down, you should not have. By what right do you claim to enter the kingdom of God with all this baggage? Condemnation is what awaits you.

7. Seated with Jesus, and Even Lying Down with Him

• But God has a plan. He tells you: sit down. Sit down with Jesus, trust him. You can even sit on him, it is an image of course: Jesus is our rest.
• The apostle Paul writes that if we have done this, it is by grace, by gift. It is a present, there is no merit. We are seated with him in the heavenly places, that is, in the invisible places (Ephesians 2:6-8). Somewhere, our soul is seated with God on a throne, because he is on the throne. We have a comfortable, secure position with God.
• Toward the end of the discussion, there is talk of coming to the light (John 3:19-21). In the early Church, the newly baptized had to publicly confess their sins, in detail. We are spared that ordeal, but we live it differently: we confess to God, we bring things to the light, "yes, I did that, I should not have, I ask forgiveness." We also do it among brothers and sisters: "I struggle with this, I fell." Living in the light lets you live much more freely. It is part of the good news.
• That morning, someone was baptized, someone was born of water and Spirit. Being baptized is not only sitting with Jesus, "it's actually lying down with Jesus," an image the preacher did not dare put in the title. It is the image of the tomb: dying with him, symbolically entering a tomb with him (Romans 6:3-4). "My first life, this natural earthly life, I leave behind, and I choose to enter fully into this new life that he is preparing for me."
• "Being baptized and living for Jesus, there is no better goal in life." Young people may dream of becoming great; past 50, you no longer dream of being great. But who is great on earth? Not influencers. It is the people who have tied their life to Jesus, because he is the heavenly man who came to take you: "Come, climb up with me." There, you become someone significant, important in God's eyes, and that counts so much more than in the eyes of a crowd that will spit on you tomorrow.
• Jesus came down from heaven to bring us up to him, to his glory, to his eternity. And that is only the beginning: he then invites us to walk, to understand how this new life works by the Spirit, with this little breath that guides us if we are attentive, and then to run with all our energy to the goal, the final meeting with him.
• The preacher's call is simple: look at Jesus with trust, with faith, with the humility that says "I need him." I have tried to get by, perhaps made some progress, but I fall again. Say as Inès did: "Lead me, breathe this divine wind into me. I too want to be born again." And the good news is that God answers. "I promise you. To a sincere heart, God answers."

Key Takeaways

• To be born from above is to be born again: Jesus says you can start over from zero, and that you must. Only a spiritual birth passes on the life of the Spirit.
• God's breath is like the wind: you do not control it. Sometimes it blows very lightly, sometimes like a hurricane, suddenly or gradually.
• Our problem is that we underestimate evil. The serpent's bite is fatal and our efforts are not enough: we need a savior.
• Like the bronze serpent, Jesus was lifted up on the cross. He became sin for us, like a sponge that absorbs all evil, and a simple look of faith is enough to live.
• Sitting with Jesus is resting in him by grace, without merit. Baptism goes further: lying down with him in the tomb to enter fully into the new life.

Personal Application

1. Like Nicodemus, do you come to Jesus by night, for fear of what others will think, or are you willing to openly acknowledge that he has something extraordinary about him?
2. In what area do you underestimate the serpent's bite, telling yourself that "it's not that serious": a curt word, a little lie, an inappropriate look?
3. Are you tempted to reject God's plan because it is too simple, and to want to prove that you can do better? What would humility change in the way you come to him?
4. What do you prefer to sweep under the rug rather than bring to the light, before God or before a brother or sister?
5. If you have never made this choice, are you ready to sit down with Jesus and say to him: "Lead me, breathe your divine wind into me, I too want to be born again"?

Verses Cited

• John 3:1-21
• John 3:8
• John 3:13-15
• John 3:16-18
• Numbers 21:4-9
• Genesis 2:7
• 2 Corinthians 5:21
• Ephesians 2:6-8
• Ephesians 3:18-19
• Romans 6:3-4

Frequently Asked Questions

What does "born from above" mean in John 3?

In Greek, a single expression means both "again" and "from above," like the musicians' "da capo," which means "from the beginning" and literally "from the head." Jesus is therefore telling Nicodemus: you can start over from zero, and you must. Natural birth only passes on natural human life; only a spiritual birth, through the breath of the Spirit, passes on the life of the Spirit.

Why does Jesus compare his cross to the bronze serpent?

In Numbers 21, the people bitten by venomous snakes were saved by fixing their gaze on the bronze serpent lifted up by Moses: no rite, no payment, no sacrifice, just a look. Jesus says that the Son of Man must be lifted up in the same way. He who never committed evil became sin for us: like a sponge, he took into himself on the cross all the evil of humanity. Whoever looks at him with trust has eternal life.

What does "sitting with Jesus" mean?

It is the image of a quiet conversation with Jesus, like the one with Nicodemus, and even more the image of rest: Jesus is our rest, and Paul writes that by grace we are seated with him in the heavenly places. There is no merit in this, it is a gift. The preacher adds that baptism goes further: it is no longer only sitting with Jesus, it is lying down with him in the tomb, leaving your first life behind and entering fully into the new life.