John 3:8-15 PODCAST
8 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.” 9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked. 10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” ~ John 3:8-15
The wind is an illustration of the activity of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The Greek word used for "wind" is pneuma which means “wind” or “spirit.” God’s pneuma is the source of life.
As the Lord Jesus is emphasizing to Nicodemus, when we realize that we do not measure up, when we get that we can not solve our problems, when we admit we need God's help, the Holy Spirit guides us to believing in and receiving the Lord Jesus. It is at this moment that the Spirit, the Pneuma, imparts His life to us. His newfound presence in our lives means we will never be the same. As John suggests, without the Holy Spirit awakening our spirit, we remain dead to God in our sin. It is the performance of the Holy Spirit in our lives that is unknown to us.
Today, we know where the jet stream is, but we cannot say where it is going to be tomorrow. It goes where it wants; nobody has been able to control it. We cannot even figure out what makes it move. No one is able to predict the purposes of God in an individual life. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
The Christian life is an adventure. Following the Lord Jesus isn’t about escaping the sin of this world, it is about learning to experience a personal relationship with God whose ways are so different than ours. So different that we have little idea what He may do next in our lives. This paradox occurs because the Christian life is supernatural and not natural for fallen man.
Once again, in v.9, Nicodemus is puzzled. "How can this be?" he asks. To this man who has given his life to studying the Old Testament, the Lord Jesus, in v.10, says to him, “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things?"
The Lord Jesus gives Nicodemus a gentle rebuke in v.11-12, saying, "Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?"
The word "know" in v.11 is the Greek word "oida" which means recognition or seeing. The idea is that of being able to see God through the lens of scripture. Having studied the scripture, Nicodemus should have recognized the Lord Jesus more readily because he had long studied the scripture which has as its central subject the Lord Jesus, Himself.
In v.13, the Lord Jesus describes His incarnation. In the Lord Jesus, God Himself came to earth as a man. The one who came down from heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ, testified to and explained the truth of God to man.
Then in v.14, the Lord Jesus uses a story from the book of Numbers to make reference to Him going to the cross. In Numbers 21, when the people of Israel were being bitten by poisonous snakes which suddenly appeared in the camp in the wilderness, and were dying by the scores. God told Moses to take a pole and put on it a brass serpent. That serpent would itself do nothing whatsoever for the people, it was merely a symbol, but they were told if they would look at it (and thus make a personal application of its meaning to their own lives), they would find themselves healed from the serpent's bite.
The Lord Jesus is saying, "That is a picture of me. I will be made sin (the serpent always represents sin), lifted up to die. When that happens, if you will look at me and believe that I am dying for you, in your place, God will forgive your sins and you will receive the life of God."
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