Description

John 3:1-15

¹There was a man called Nicodemus who was a Pharisee and a member of the Jewish supreme council. ²He came to Jesus at night, maybe because he was afraid of what people would think if they recognised him meeting with Jesus. He said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, we know you’re a teacher who has been sent by God, because it would be impossible for anyone to perform the miraculous signs you’re doing unless God were with him.’

³Jesus knew what was going on in Nicodemus’ mind, so he answered, ‘I am telling you the truth, if anyone wants to see God’s kingdom, they must be born again by the Holy Spirit.’

⁴Nicodemus looked puzzled and replied, ‘Born again? How can you be born a second time when you’re already old? You can’t go back inside your mother’s womb and be born a second time!’

⁵Jesus insisted, ‘I am telling you the truth. The only way to enter God’s kingdom is to be born again. You must receive new, spiritual life from God by the Holy Spirit. ⁶What is born naturally is only physical, but it’s also vital that you’re born again by the Holy Spirit. You must be washed clean from your sin and be made a new person on the inside. ⁷Don’t be surprised at my saying you have to be born again. ⁸This new birth isn’t something you do; it is something that has to happen to you. It’s as mysterious as the blowing of the wind, which you can’t control. Although you don’t know where the wind comes from or where it’s going to, its presence is still real! You can see its effects as you watch and listen. So it is with the Holy Spirit working in everyone who is born again.’

⁹Nicodemus remained uncertain. He asked, ‘How is all this possible?’

¹⁰Jesus answered him, ‘How can you be one of Israel’s teachers and not grasp what I’ve been saying? ¹¹I am telling you the truth, we speak about what we know, and we tell the truth about what we’ve seen, but still you won’t accept what we say. ¹²I’ve spoken to you about basic earthly things, but you’ve not accepted them. How then will you believe if I speak about deeper heavenly things? ¹³No one has ever gone to heaven, except the One who has come from heaven, the Son of Man. Because I am the Son of Man, I speak with authority about heavenly things.’

¹⁴‘When Moses lifted up a snake on a pole in the desert, the people who had been bitten by a poisonous snake looked at it and were healed. In the same way, the Son of Man has to be lifted up on a cross. ¹⁵Then everyone who trusts in him may have eternal life.’ That trust is a dependence only on Jesus, just as the Israelites looked only to the bronze snake to be healed.

Challenge: Why is the new birth necessary? Have you been born again?