If I Tell You Heavenly Things -John 3:9-14

John 3:9-14
Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? 11 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. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

So how do we know? We are immersed in this world here on earth. Our understanding of who we are is derived from this place. Nicodemus is trying to understand what Jesus is saying, but the words are not making earthly sense. His position as a leader and teacher of the people of Israel is of no help as he earnestly seeks the God of his fathers.

The words only make sense to one who is touched by the Spirit, for they are Spirit words. Jesus speaks with the authority of that Spirit, not just of heaven, but from heaven. The word has descended into His own creation and brings with Him the words of life. It was a challenge to believe God when He was in the shape of a man saying these things, that He is indeed God, just as it is a challenge today. From the world's perspective, it is a foolish proposition. It goes against the grain of human intelligence and experience to believe, until one recognizes that we are talking about something beyond human intelligence and something outside of our experience in this world.

He descended from heaven, but would be lifted up by man and God. Moses foreshadows the way man would lift Him, beaten and hung on a cross, ill treated and violently rejected. In the wilderness, Moses would also show us how God would heal His people from the poisonous snakes. Those who look to Jesus, the Son of God, will be saved, just as those wanderers in the desert so long ago.

This account is in the Scripture that Nicodemus held so dear, but the light of understanding had yet to enter his heart. When it does, he will know.


Isaiah 29:10-12
For the Lord has poured out upon you
a spirit of deep sleep,
and has closed your eyes (the prophets),
and covered your heads (the seers).
11 And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” 12 And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.”

Matthew 11:25-26
25 At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; 26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.

Matthew 22:29
But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.

Psalms 51:6
Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

Isaiah 53:1
1 Who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

1 Corinthians 3:1-2
1 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready,

1 Corinthians 2:7-8
But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

1 Corinthians 15:47-49
The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.