Who do you say that He is when He looks a credentialed teacher in the eye and says, “You should already know this”?
That is the door. Sit with it before we climb. You do not need a seminary badge, a party jersey, or a perfect quiet time streak to walk through it. You need a Person. Around AD 30, in Jerusalem at night, a Pharisee named Nicodemus came to Jesus. He had titles. He had training. He had the Scriptures of Israel in his bones — or he was supposed to. And Jesus did not flatter the résumé. He put accountability where the Word already sat.
This lesson is the first step in a slow walk: Why Nicodemus Should Have Known. The plate is not a dunk on Pharisees. The plate is not “Jesus said it, so close your Bible and stop thinking.” Jesus said it — and that is enough for faith. But He also said something sharper to a teacher: your Bible already held these things. Hear that gently. Many of us were taught slogans that never asked the next question. This series asks it. Slowly. With open eyes.
Jesus asked the first question first. “Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15). Not first, “How clever is your system?” Not first, “Which school can defend you?” Who do you say that He is — when He rebukes a teacher for not recognizing what Moses and the Prophets already put on the table?
Hear the scene.
“Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him’” (John 3:1–2). Nicodemus is not sneering. He is careful. Respectful. He sees signs and draws a cautious line: teacher from God. Jesus answers past the compliment into the need: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Nicodemus stumbles on the picture — how can a man be born when he is old? — and Jesus presses further: born of water and the Spirit; flesh gives birth to flesh; Spirit to spirit; the wind blows where it wishes (John 3:4–8).
Then the question that opens this series: “Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can these things be?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?’” (John 3:9–12).
Do you hear the tone? Not a sneer. Accountability. The teacher of Israel — a man who should have been able to lead others into Israel’s own Book — and he is still asking as if new birth, Spirit, and cleansing were a private riddle Jesus just invented in the dark. Jesus is not inventing a mystery cult. He is exposing a gap between office and understanding.
Hear the pastoral word before the hard word. This lesson does not ask you to leave your church. It does not ask you to despise teachers, elders, or anyone who has ever taught you a true slogan. Honor your teachers. Thank God for every true word you have received. Then refuse one swap: a slogan that never sends you back into Scripture to see why Jesus expected Nicodemus to know. Hungry disciples keep reading. Pew-fillers settle for the clip.
And honor Nicodemus himself without soft-pedaling John 3:10. Later he will risk the council’s anger to insist on a hearing for Jesus (John 7:50–51). Later still he will bring a costly weight of spices for the Lord’s burial (John 19:39). Courage grew. Night visits became daylight loyalty. That matters. Grace does not erase the rebuke; grace means the rebuked man can still become brave. Start where Jesus started with him: the teacher should have known.
Known what?
Not everything at once. This is a door, not a dump truck. In the lessons ahead we will walk the plates Jesus Himself puts in reach — water and Spirit against the Prophets’ promise of cleansing and a new heart (Ezekiel 36:25–27 will have its own sitting); the wind you cannot manage; and the serpent Moses lifted up, which Jesus Himself ties to the Son of Man being lifted up so that whoever believes may have eternal life (Numbers 21; John 3:14–15). Soft glance only for now. Name the path. Do not race it. Slow walk. Open eyes.
For today, hold one clear word: Jesus’ rebuke assumes Scripture. He treats Nicodemus as a man responsible for Israel’s Book. New heart. Spirit. Cleansing. A lifted-up pattern of looking and living. These were not Christian inventions waiting for AD 30. They were already on the table for anyone who taught Israel. When Nicodemus asks, “How can these things be?” Jesus answers, in effect, “You had the Book. Why is this strange to you?”
That is why the rebuke is love. Love tells the truth to a teacher. Love will not let credentials replace repentance. Love will not let “we know you are from God” stand in for “I must be born from above.” Signs impressed Nicodemus. Birth from above still confused him. Many of us live in that same half-light: we admire Jesus enough to visit at night, and we still treat new birth like a technique we can schedule, or a slogan we can recite without trembling.
Reformed people have long insisted that regeneration is God’s work — new heart, not self-upgrade — and that Scripture interprets Scripture. Continuationist people insist the same Spirit who blows where He wishes still opens eyes, still convicts, still makes teachers and hearers hungry for Christ. Hold both hands on the same gift. Neither word is the door. He is.
So put the question back where Jesus put the first one. Not first, “How do I defend my team?” Not first, “How do I dunk on Pharisees?” First: Who do you say that He is — when He says to a teacher of Israel, “You should already know this,” and when that same word lands on your own trained heart?
Is new birth a private puzzle Jesus invented in the dark — or the Lord of Israel calling His people back to what His Word already said, and asking for your confession?
NewGrapes Ministries. Making disciples, not pew-fillers. Soli Deo Gloria.
Sources
- Matthew 16:15; John 3:1–15 (esp. 3:9–12; 3:10); John 7:50–51; 19:39
- Soft forward glance only (later plates in this series — not preached here): Ezekiel 36:25–27; Numbers 21 with John 3:14–15
- Series door: Why Nicodemus Should Have Known — piece 1 of a slow walk