This program is brought to you by Israel restoration Ministries.
What are you doing Sunday nights? Come join Friendship with God radio Bible teacher Tom Cantor of the Friendship with God Fellowship Church every Sunday night at 5:30 p.m. at The Vine at 9336 Abraham Way, Santee, California. Watch and listen live around the world to Tom Cantor Sunday evening on youtube.com by searching for Friendship with God Fellowship or by going to our homepage at friendshipwithgod.org.
That’s friendshipwithgod.org.
Welcome to Friendship with God with our Bible teacher, Tom Cantor. Today’s message and previous messages can be listened to or downloaded for free at friendshipwithgod.org.
So with that first word, Nicodemus has set the stage by calling him rabbi. He’s unmasked himself to Jesus with that word rabbi. He’s saying, I am Nicodemus, and I have a great need to know in order to do.
He’s saying, and then he’s saying, I have a great confidence in you that you are a great teacher that can make me know so I can do. So, what we see in Nicodemus when he calls Jesus rabbi is faith. Faith is a great confidence in Jesus.
That’s what faith is. Faith is confidence in Jesus Christ that he can meet the needs of life. That’s what we see in him.
Now, the next word that Nicodemus says to Jesus is surprising because it’s the word we, we, John, verse two, verse two. We know that thou art a teacher come from God. Now, he said we, so we look around and we say, we don’t see anyone else there at night meeting with Jesus other than Nicodemus.
And yet Nicodemus has said, we know, and certainly not talking about the Pharisees because they don’t know that he’s a teacher come from God, but we expected Nicodemus to say, I know that thou art a teacher come from God, but Nicodemus says, we know that thou art a teacher come from God. And so it raises the question, who’s the we? Who is the we that he’s talking about?
Evidently, Nicodemus is not the only Pharisee. It’s not any of the Pharisees, it’s not many, but there’s some who believe that Jesus is the teacher come from God. At least one other Pharisee who also believes with Nicodemus that Jesus is the teacher come from God.
So evidently, one or more Pharisees are with Nicodemus as a small group of Pharisees within this hostile group against Jesus, and they believe that Jesus is a teacher that’s come from God. And this small group evidently has commissioned Nicodemus, go to Jesus and get answers to questions. Now, if you and I encountered Nicodemus and the others who joined Nicodemus in their belief that Jesus was a teacher come from God, we wouldn’t see this about Nicodemus.
He certainly didn’t walk around with a cross. And other Pharisees, we wouldn’t have seen that. Nicodemus and the other Pharisees in his group would appear to us to be just like all the other Pharisees, hostile enemies against Jesus.
And that shows us how weak we are to see the hearts of people. We see a person who to us looks as hard as a rock against God. And we see a person and conclude, oh, that person is triple deed.
He is dead, he is damned, and he is delivered. That’s what Mildred used to say. And we conclude there’s no way that that person is going to be coming to Jesus.
That’s because we can’t see inside the heart. We can’t. And that reminds me of Dorothy Greenstein.
Dorothy Greenstein was a Jewish Holocaust survivor from Poland, and she worked at the LA Holocaust Museum, and she spoke to many, many schools, high schools throughout Los Angeles, about her experience of escaping the Nazis in Poland. Dorothy was also a Hebrew teacher, and so Dorothy lived in Los Angeles, and Dorothy retaught me Hebrew on the phone regularly, and we would read through the Bible together in Hebrew, and that led to great disagreements and great arguments, loud arguments, so heated that my wife would come over and say, what’s wrong? What’s going on?
So, well, we’re just having a discussion. It wasn’t really an argument. And then Dorothy would say to me, stop talking to me about Jesus.
And Dorothy would say to me, look, you and I go to different congregations. So, as she would put it. And I was convinced that Dorothy would never come to Jesus.
Well, Dorothy got melanoma, and she died in 2018 in December. And I went to the funeral at the San Bernardino Chabad Synagogue.
And now, I knew that Dorothy had another student who was a Gentile, who was a Mexican, named sergio. And I knew that he went to a Messianic Fellowship in Los Angeles. He was a believer in Jesus.
And Dorothy used to talk to me about him. It was at Dorothy’s funeral that I met sergio for the first time. And sergio told me that before Dorothy died, that sergio told Dorothy that he had great peace inside.
And Dorothy asked sergio, how can I get that peace? That same peace. And so sergio told Dorothy how she had to receive Jesus in order to get that peace.
And Dorothy did that. He told me that she did that. She received Jesus.
I had no idea that Dorothy would come to Jesus. I concluded that she was hopeless. That she was like, but Dorothy in fact was like Nicodemus.
She came to Jesus in the cloak of the night and called Jesus rabbi just like Nicodemus. It shows the truth in the phrase about spreading the word of God like its seed. And the phrase is, sow, sow, keep on sowing.
God will make it grow without your knowing. That’s what happened. Well, God made the seed of the gospel to grow in Dorothy without my knowing.
Now, Nicodemus tells Jesus what they did know in verse 2 when he says, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God. So, when he says this, thou art a teacher come from God, he’s saying to Jesus, look, you’re a teacher that came from God. You’re a teacher that did not come from an education of men like other teachers here.
Reminds me of the time when I was, when I stopped a group of rabbis who were taking a walk on Sabbath, on Saturday, in desert hot springs. And I was so excited that I stopped them and I told them how I found Jesus. And I remember this one rabbi, because he looked at me and he was a spokesman, and he stroked his beard.
They’re very good at stroking their beards, because he stroked his beard. And he looked at me over his glasses, too, like this. Stroking his beard, he looked at me over the glass.
I gotta do this so I can see you. Anyway, and he says, he went like this, he goes, I’m sorry, I didn’t get what yeshiva you graduated from.
And I was offended, to say the least. All the other teachers came from men, from a teacher who was a man, or from a yeshiva that was made of the teachers who were men. All the other teachers came from men, but what Nicodemus told Jesus was that he was different.
Because Nicodemus told Jesus that he didn’t come from men, but he came from God. And this is what made Jesus as a teacher different from all the other teachers, and people saw it. Like we read, they saw it.
Mark 1, 22, Mark 1, 22. They were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes. And as we read just a little bit ago, John 7, 46, John 7, 46, the officers answered, never man spake like this man.
Why? He was the teacher that came from God. And Nicodemus knew it.
And Nicodemus knew that he’s got some kind of a special revelation from God, and I want it, and I’m anxious to get it. So he explains, Nicodemus explains how he and his little group knew that Jesus was the teacher come from God. And then he says, in verse two, verse two, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with them.
So what’s that mean? That means they’ve been watching the miracles that Jesus did. What were those miracles?
In those miracles, Jesus changed the course of nature. Because when he caused a few fish and a few loaves to be multiplied to feed thousands of people, that’s against the course of nature. When they knew he changed the course of nature, when he turned water into wine, he changed the course of nature.
When he spoke a word and a wild sea became calm, he changed the course of nature. When he causes a fig tree just with his word to shrivel up and die, he’s again changing the course of nature. He touches a person and leprosy immediately disappears.
He’s changing the course of nature. Nature says, when you’re dead, you’re dead. But he speaks the word and a dead man rises up.
He’s changing the course of nature. All of these miracles are Jesus changing the course of nature. And Nicodemus and his group knew that the course of nature can only be changed by the God of nature.
And therefore, they said that. And these were the credentials, therefore, the miracles. Were the credentials that Nicodemus recognized for Jesus when he says, no man can do these miracles except God be with him.
Now, when he said those words, except God be with them, he’s getting very close to saying, you are not only the God with you person, but you are the God with us person. And the Hebrew words for God with us is the word Emmanuel. Emmanuel.
That meant Nicodemus is getting very close to calling him God with us, as in Isaiah 714. Isaiah 714. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name God with us, or Emmanuel.
So Nicodemus is getting very close to saying that Jesus is God, who had come to us to be with us. Now, all of these things troubled Nicodemus, and he didn’t say anything more. He just waited to receive truth from Jesus, his new found teacher come from God.
So Nicodemus has finished talking, and now we read in verse 3, Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Now, so far, Nicodemus has not asked any questions to Jesus. There’s no questions on the table with this conversation.
But what’s surprising about verse 3 is that the word answered is used there. The word answer is given to a question, and Nicodemus hasn’t asked any question. But yet verse 3 says that Jesus answered Nicodemus.
So Jesus is giving an answer in verse 3, but we don’t see a question in verse 2. And that’s just the point, that we saw in the last chapter, as I mentioned in the last verse, for example, John 2.25, he knew what was in man. So Nicodemus did not have to ask a question because Jesus knew what was in Nicodemus.
Jesus knew there was a great question inside of Nicodemus, and Nicodemus didn’t say what that question was, but Nicodemus did not have to verbalize the question, because Jesus heard the heart of Nicodemus loud and clear, and the heart of Nicodemus was crying out a question that the mouth of Nicodemus was mute over, and Jesus heard the heart cry. And this is a lesson for us. It’s a lesson for us, and it’s really tied up in the song People Need the Lord, where the words are, on they go through private pain, living fear to fear.
Laughter hides their silent cries. Only Jesus hears. People need the Lord.
People need the Lord. At the end of broken dreams, he’s the open door. People need the Lord.
When will we realize? People need the Lord. That’s Nicodemus.
That’s Nicodemus. Nicodemus told Jesus that he knew he came from God because of the miracles.
But that was only, as the song says, hiding his silent cries that only Jesus hears, and Nicodemus needs the Lord. So the silent question that the heart of Nicodemus is asking and crying out is, how can I get to heaven? How can I go to heaven?
How can I arrive in heaven? And that’s the pressing question that was driving Nicodemus, and that’s the silent question that his heart was crying out for. That was his personal need.
How am I going to get to heaven? How am I going to see heaven? How am I going to enter heaven?
That was his questions. And then came the personal answer that Jesus gave to Nicodemus, and he didn’t let those silent questions go unanswered. Now that’s a lesson for us.
Because when we come to Jesus, and we’ve got a heavy heart, and we can’t even put into words what we don’t put into words, but our heart is just yearning inside, and we don’t know why. Our heart is searching, and we’re not sure for what. When we come to Jesus, we’re coming to, as John Newton’s hymn says, Come my soul thy suit prepare.
Thou art coming to a king. Large petitions with thee bring, for his grace and power are such, none can ever ask too much. So we come to Jesus, we’re not speaking, but our heart is crying out.
But our mouths are silent, and Jesus answers. He answers our heart cry. And that’s what he did for Nicodemus in verse three.
He answered the heart cries of Nicodemus when the mouth of Nicodemus was silent about what his heart was crying out for, which was, how am I going to see and how am I going to enter heaven? So Jesus answered, verse three. Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily, I say unto thee.
Now he starts off in verse three with these words, verily, verily, I say unto thee. That’s really Jesus saying to Nicodemus, verily, verily, vehemently, vehemently, I say unto thee. That verily, verily, in verse three, it’s like Jesus saying to Nicodemus, strongly, strongly, I say unto thee.
He’s saying, verily, verily, is saying, I’m telling you as strongly and as passionately as I can. So when Jesus said in verse three, verily, verily, I say unto you, that was Jesus saying, I hear your heart cries loud and clear. How can I see?
How can I get to heaven? And I’m speaking to you directly. And so he says, I say unto thee.
When Jesus said that, I say unto thee, it shows why Jesus called people alone. And he said in Isaiah 27, 12, Isaiah 27, 12, it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, oh ye children of Israel. God doesn’t call groups.
He calls people one by one. Again, Isaiah 51, 2, Isaiah 51, 2, look unto Abraham, your father. I called him alone.
God is a one by one God. He listens to the heart of people one by one, individually, personally, he speaks. That’s why it’s so important to meet with God in a devotion time alone.
That’s why it’s so important to have an alone time with God. Family devotions are great, terrific. Family prayers are wonderful, but there’s gotta be an alone time, a devotion time alone.
There must be an alone prayer time with God, like the hymn puts it. The hymn puts it. When storms of life are round me beating, when rough the path that I have trod, within my closet door retreating, I love to be alone with God.
Alone with God, the world forbidden. Alone with God, O blessed retreat. Alone with God, and in him hidden, to hold with him communion sweet.
Gotta be. Gotta be alone with God. So, crystal clarity, Jesus gives the answer to the hard question that really drove Nicodemus in this whole meeting.
The question is, how am I gonna see, how am I gonna enter heaven? And Jesus says in verse three, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. He says the word except, and with that word except, he’s saying that being born from above, being born a second time, was the only way a person could go to heaven.
This is the word except. Jesus was saying, there’s not many roads to heaven. That word except, Jesus is saying, there’s only one road that leads to heaven.
Like he said about himself in John 14, 6. John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me.
That’s the word except. There’s only one door. When you looked at the tabernacle, Moses’ tabernacle in the wilderness, there was just one door into that tabernacle in the desert.
If you wanted to meet with God, you had to go through that one door. There wasn’t a side door, there wasn’t a back door, there was that one door. And Jesus said in John 10, 7, John 10, 7, then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.
All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t hear them. I am the door by me. If any man enter in, he shall be saved and go in and out and find pasture.
And for that reason, the statement is in Acts 412, Acts 412, neither is there salvation in any other, for there’s none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. So Christ says to Nicodemus, except in verse one, and right away, this is the clash of God with Judaism. Why?
Because he’s saying, you can’t get to heaven by mitzvah ot, by good works. Christ is saying, except in verse three, means that for Catholics, you can’t get to heaven by sacraments, by keeping sacraments. He says in verse three, except, it means for religious people, you can’t get to heaven by ceremonies, or by being baptized, or taking communions.
He says, except, a man be born again, and he’s saying, except a man. He says, a man, any man, any Jewish man, any Gentile man, any religious man, any non-religious man, any Middle Eastern man, any Asian man, any South American man, and even any Japanese man. It reminds me of when I would speak to the Japanese businessmen about Christ, and they would say to me, Cantor-san, that is Western religion.
We are Japanese. They would say that to me. What Jesus said in verse three, amen, he meant any Japanese man.
So right away Nicodemus is directed by Jesus to know that the real impact of the Shema it means that there is only one God for the whole earth. There is only one true way to this God of the whole earth that he’s made. And that’s where the Shema leads of Deuteronomy 6.4, Deuteronomy 6.4, hero Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.
Let’s pray. Father, thank you so much for our Lord Jesus, who took so much time and effort and strength to find one sheep, Nicodemus, and direct him to you. Thank you for that.
In Jesus’ name, amen.
Tom Cantor’s messages can be listened to and downloaded for free at friendshipwithgod.org. For other free resources, email us at tomcantor at friendshipwithgod.org or call us at 800-247-3051. Join our live services on YouTube by searching Friendship with God with Tom Cantor every Sunday at 5:30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.
What are you doing Sunday nights? Come join Friendship with God radio Bible teacher Tom Cantor of the Friendship with God Fellowship Church every Sunday night at 5:30 p.m. at The Vine at 9336 Abraham Way, Santee, California. Watch and listen live around the world to Tom Cantor Sunday evening on youtube.com by searching for Friendship with God Fellowship or by going to our homepage at friendshipwithgod.org That’s friendshipwithgod.org This program is brought to you by Israel restoration Ministries.
