Nicodemus and John the Baptist's Final Witness

The Sanhedrin, a group of 70 men, was much like the Supreme Court of the land except also subject to Roman rule. These men were the ruling council of Israel and were afforded distinction and privilege as such. Three members of the Sanhedrin are mentioned in Scripture, including Joseph of Arimathea (19:38) and Gamaliel (Acts 5:34-39). In this chapter, we have Nicodemus, who will later rebuke the council for condemning Jesus before giving Him a hearing (John 7:50-51) and will also help Joseph of Arimathea bury Jesus (19:39-40).

The Nicodemus Visit (1-15)

Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, perhaps to use a stealth encounter with Jesus to bring Him under the Sanhedrin's control. John did not say Nicodemus had a private encounter, just that he came by “night,” a term John used throughout his Gospel to mean something shady or sinister.

Nicodemus gave Jesus the courteous “we,” referring to the Sanhedrin, and then sought to flatter Him with the title of Rabbi or Teacher. The council was willing to admit He had come from God because the signs He was performing were pointing straight at Yahweh. Nicodemus was proposing to interview Jesus with the disarming approach: “Let's talk rabbi to rabbi.” His goal was: “Maybe we could join forces to put to rest this John-the-Baptist moment and bring the whole movement where it should be, under Sanhedrin control.” I have little doubt Nicodemus’ purpose in this visit was to quell Yahweh's Messiah movement, which was so full of zeal and expectation (1-2).

Jesus then began to reveal to Nicodemus the shocking news: they couldn't have a rabbi-to-rabbi talk because Jesus was from another Kingdom, a Kingdom of higher rank than the Sanhedrin.

For Nicodemus to be able to “see” the Kingdom Jesus was from, he would need to be born again or literally “born from above.” Nicodemus heard Jesus perfectly; he needed a complete spiritual transformation and rebirth wherein he would be transferred from the present Jewish man-made kingdom to the Kingdom where Jesus was King (3).

Nicodemus then played the impossibility card. He couldn’t imagine Jesus to mean he needed a spiritual reawakening or birth, which would remove his full allegiance to Judaism and replace it with another encounter with Yahweh. So, Nicodemus used the reply, “You can't mean I must return to my mother's womb and be reincarnated” (4). Remember, Nicodemus had already rejected John's baptism by not being baptized. He was seeking to make nice with Jesus to bring the movement under the Sanhedrin's control but had not affirmed the truth of what John was doing.

Jesus didn’t back down; He told Nicodemus that unless he was born of water and Spirit, he could not even “enter,” much less see, the Kingdom. Water was a symbol for:

• natural birth

• the word of God

• the baptism of John

Most likely, Jesus was referring to the baptism of John, where hearts were being made ready both to see and enter the Kingdom of the King who was coming. Nicodemus had seen no reason to personally get his heart ready to receive this coming King, so he avoided the baptism of John. Spirit-birth was also necessary, meaning Nicodemus needed a work of the Holy Spirit within (5).

Jesus continued to explain that the womb produced physical beings with a spirit; the Holy Spirit produced spiritual beings with a body. A physically born person could not regenerate him or herself into a spiritual person; only the Creator could accomplish such a miracle (6).

Jesus did not want Nicodemus to wonder at or be astonished by His words. Jesus then explained why He was using a bit of wordplay. The Greek word pneuma means breath, wind, and spirit. Nicodemus could not control the force of the wind nor where it was coming from or where it was going, and so it was with the Holy Spirit. Nicodemus should not have been surprised that God was beyond his control. All the Sanhedrin needed to know was that the movement beginning with John was going to shift to Jesus, and humans could not control it. The movement was spiritual, and those affected by it were being spiritually transformed, seeing and entering the coming Kingdom of God (7-8).