The Two Paths Before Every Person | The Gospels | John 3:1-21

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Welcome to Ten Minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work.

Patrick Miller (0:10)

I'm Patrick Miller.

Silas Thorne was a decorated daytime precinct captain in late 19th century New York. He was celebrated by local papers for taking pickpockets off the streets and organizing youth sports leagues to keep kids out of trouble. While much of New York's police force was known for the corruption, Thorne was a vision of what a policeman should be and could be, but Thorne had a secret. At night, he would travel outside of his own precincts jurisdiction in civilian clothes and in a black mask and his intimate knowledge of police patrol schedules, response times and weak points to break into luxury jewel stores and empty their high-end cast iron safes. He only knew how to break into the safes because of his work on robberies as a policeman. For seven years, he continued this charade, often investigating his daytime peers' confusion over these cases and leading them astray to cover up his tracks.

He was only caught because a patrolman recognized his voice during a late-night heist gone wrong. We all face the temptation to be one person by day and another by night, one person in public and a different in private, one person on the outside and a different on the inside. In John 3, we meet someone on a nighttime mission. His name was Nicodemus, and by day, he was a well-respected Pharisee and a member of the Jewish people's ruling council called the Sanhedrin. At some point, he must have encountered Jesus, heard him teaching, seen him doing miracles, but he was a member of the Pharisees, the sect most opposed to Jesus' ministry, most offended by his teachings, most bothered by his presence. So by day, he colluded with the enemies of Jesus, but by night, he was something else. He was curious. He wanted to know more. He couldn't shake that maybe Jesus was who he said he was. John wants us to see this because he highlights one detail of Nicodemus' story. He came to Jesus in the cover of night. There were no electric lights or cameras, just the stars and the moon and a few torches. Nicodemus sneaks in to where Jesus is staying to learn more. He's one man by day, a different man by night. Let's pick up in John 3 verse 1

Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus, who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform the signs you were doing if God was not with him. Jesus replied, very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. How can someone be born again when they are old? Nicodemus asked. Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother's womb to be born. It's tough to tell here whether Nicodemus is sincerely confused by Jesus or being deliberately difficult.

Obviously, Jesus is using a metaphor, being born again. But regardless of his sincerity, Nicodemus wants the metaphor explained. Verse 5

Jesus answered, Very truly I tell you, no one can enter into the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to Spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, you must be born again. The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. How can this be? Nicodemus asked. Jesus' teaching here is littered with word plays lost in English. The words Spirit and wind are all the same in Greek and Hebrew. So the comparison Jesus is making between Spirit and wind isn't just metaphorical, it's built into the words themselves. He's saying that obviously no one can be reborn from their mother's womb, but one may be reborn of the Spirit. And that the Spirit cannot be controlled. He's like the wind. He comes and goes as he pleases. Just as you cannot see the wind except by what it moves, jostles and shakes, you cannot see the Spirit except by what he does in the lives of people.

In other words, Jesus is telling Nicodemus, you've already seen the Spirit working. You've seen the trees shaking. You've heard the rustle of the wind. You've already admitted it. You've already seen Jesus' power at work in miracles. In his teaching and in the transformed lives that follow. And that's the nub of Jesus' critique. Nicodemus can see what God is doing, but rather than allowing the wind to carry him away, he's staying in place. He's resisting. He won't give up his respectability in the daytime. His status as a Pharisee, a member of the Jewish Council. He won't give up his reputation to participate in what God's Spirit is doing, that he's seen. And that is precisely what Nicodemus must do to experience new birth from the Spirit.