The Second Sunday in Lent - March 1, 2026
Born from Above
Yesterday’s sermon focused on the account given in John 3:1-17, in which Nicodemus comes to meet and speak with Jesus at night. I divided the verses into five sections: vv. 1-3, 4-5, 6-9, 10-13, and 14-17. I first noted that Nicodemus comes at night. I said that the name “Nicodemus” appears in several extra-Biblical references, and in all cases the man possess significant cultural status. So, when he is identified as a “ruler of the Jews” in verse one, we should note the significance of who he is. This isn’t just anyone coming to Jesus. Nicodemus possesses power and comes in the dark to see Jesus. Clearly, he does not want this visit visible to people. Yet, he greets Jesus as “rabbi” because he recognizes Jesus’ special power from the miracles he has done; up to this point in the Gospel of John the only miracle recorded is that of turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana.
Jesus welcomes Nicodemus’ coming by telling him that to see the kingdom of God one must be begotten from above, employing in the actually Greek words the word for the man’s role in precreation. This is a significant difference in nuance than the traditional translation of being “born again” allows. Begotten emphasizes that God takes the initiation in giving people the power to see the kingdom of God. In every way verse three makes God the primary actor in creating faith in a person.
Nicodemus wonders how can this happen, asking rhetorically if a person must enter his mother’s womb again. He misses the nuance. Jesus replies that God begets, conceives, creates faith within a person by the power of water and the Spirit—baptism (cf. Ez 36:25-27; Mk 16:15; Acts 2:38; Ep 5:26; Titus 3:5; He 10:22). Baptism becomes a means by which God “begets” believers in his promise, Jesus the Messiah! This happens like the wind, the Holy Spirit moving where He wills.
Jesus rebukes Nicodemus by telling him he does not know these things. Jesus then takes the authority fully into his hands. He says, “What we know, we say, what we know, we see. We bear witness” (v. 11). Jesus is making it clear that though Nicodemus does not know these things, he does. He is the one from heaven (v. 13). He has come down to be lifted up on the cross, becoming sin for us, invoking the powerful account of Numbers 21, where the serpent bluntly refers to Satan as he appears in Ge 3. The Apostle Paul says it directly, “For our sake he made him to be sin rwho knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2Co 5:21).
The section ends with the powerful, Gospel-focused assertion: Jesus came not to condemn the the cosmos but that the cosmos would be saved through him, employing a classic bludgeon structure: ABB’A’.