An Interview With Jesus and Nick at Nite, John 2:23-3:21

Hanging out with Jesus never gets boring.

So far He’s filled a wedding with wine, emptied the temple of wicked, and now, He interviews with Nick at night and utters the most famous sentence in the Bible.

Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name—

That’s great. Many believe. 

But wait, there’s more.

—when they saw the signs which He did.

Oh, so, they believed when they saw, the signs. Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet, believed. John 20:29.

²⁴ But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, ²⁵ and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.

The words believe and commit are the same in the original text. Thus, John 2:23-24 in essence is saying, many believed in Him, but He did not believe in them.

Why?

According to, Hebrews 4:12, the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Jesus is the Word became flesh.

John tells us in the first chapter, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. John 1:1, 14.

Throughout John we see the deity of Christ, and here we see His omniscience (all knowing). Jesus has x-ray vision into the heart and soul (thoughts and intents). He knows the reason they follow. Many believe, because of the signs, the miracles, not His message or mission.

You may have heard of, Pastor Warren Wiersbe, (he went Home, in 2019). He called folks like this, “Unsaved believers.” These are those who will say to Jesus, we did this and that in Your name, and He will, sadly, say, “Depart from Me, I never knew you.” Matthew 7:23.

He knows us. Why we do what we do. What we’re thinking. Right now. And even that time when you…

 The Word (Jesus) is quick (alive) and powerful, and sees all. The passage in Hebrews continues: And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. Hebrews 4:13.

He sees and hears, all—yet, He still loves us.

Okay, now we’re at a pivotal moment as we transition from the many seeking signs, to the man, seeking Truth.

For clarity of context, let’s read from John 2:23-3:1.

Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.  But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.

There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.  John 2:23-3:1.

This Jewish man, named Nick (Nicodemus) was a Pharisee and a ruler. He wasn’t just your average Joe.

He was one of the six-thousand, or so, Pharisees at that time. They were the conservatives of Judaism. They meticulously (ridiculously) followed the law. Whereas, on the other side of the isle, were the liberals, the Sadducees.

Apparently, the Pharisees developed during the four-hundred years between the Old and New Testament. We don’t hear about them in the Old, and they simply appear in the New.

The name Pharisee comes from Perushim, which means separate. (Side note: about 400 years ago Separatists, landed on the shores of what would become, America).

These Separatists were careful to separate, themselves from anything that’d make them unclean. Holier than thou, was their middle name. Legalism was their last. They were committed to keeping not just the written law, but also the oral law, the Mishnah; the commentary on the law added by the sages, over the ages.

Perhaps it started from a good place. Follow the law, stay pure, separate, holy. But, little by little, rule upon rule, the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 2 Corinthians 3:6.

That was the Pharisees. Nicodemus was one of them.

That’s not all. He was also a political leader; a ruler of the Jews. He was one of the seventy-one member Sanhedrin (Like the Supreme Court and Senate).

Jesus calls him, “the” teacher of Israel in verse ten. Nick was no average Joe. Powerfully influential, religiously, politically, and professionally.

None of that is all too impressive compared to how he sticks his neck out for Jesus in John 7:51.  And then, how he helps, at great expense, attend to the body of Jesus after the crucifixion. John 19:39-40.

That’s Nicodemus, the Pharisee, Senator, Professor; and we’re about to see his best feature…Truth seeker.

² 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.”

So, why’d he show-up at night?

Some say because he was scared. That’s possible. He has a reputation after all. He was a leader. He may have felt a little nervous about a public endorsement until he knew more about the Man.

Perhaps that was the only time he could find free. Afterall, he must’ve had a busy schedule.  

But then, maybe it was because he wanted some personal, quiet, unhurried, uninterrupted time, just with Jesus. The rabbis believed the best time to study was at night, when the world was at rest. For me, it’s early, so early some call it the middle of the night, like around three or four. Whatever time, Nick had it right—we all need private time with our Lord, our Jesus Christ.

We don’t know for sure, why he showed up at night, but I like to think it’s the latter; especially considering the way he behaves from here on out. He was hungry, and this meeting, I believe, gave him a taste of the Bread of Life, and after that, all the accolades the world had to offer couldn’t hold a candle to meeting the Light of the world.

Nicodemus addresses Jesus with respect and honor by using the title, Rabbi. He pays Jesus a great complement by saying he believes He’s from God.

Most folks would be bubbling over with gratitude upon receiving an endorsement like that, from someone such as Nicodemus. Can we get a picture together to post on Facebook? Will you put that in writing? How about we do some speaking gigs together…

Not Jesus. Rather than listening to the words from Nick’s mouth, Jesus heard the thoughts and intents of his heart. Hebrews 4:12.  

Was Nick wondering, thinking, praying:

Are you the One we’ve been waiting for? The Messiah?

Is this, all of this, the religion, the law, the endless effort to stay clean, in a world full of dirt…is this how it all works? How we please God? How we enter His Kingdom?

³ Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

The Jews had a saying that when a gentile is converted to Judaism, they were like a newborn babe, reborn.

But I don’t need to be reborn, I’m not a gentile; I’ve already been born, of the chosen seed of Abraham. I don’t get it Jesus. What do You mean? Born again?

⁴ Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

Huh? Nick? Are you kidding?

I don’t think I could’ve stopped from laughing, at least a little. I mean, can you imagine an educated national leader, saying something that dumb… Oh. Wait. Never mind.

But Jesus, who sees the thoughts and intents of the heart, knew what he meant.

⁵ Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God^{. 6} That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ ⁸ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Dear Nick, it’s not about works, it’s about birth. Not physical, water breaking, flesh and blood of Abraham birth, but Spiritual birth.

I’ve come to breathe life back into the part of you (and all mankind) that died the day Adam sinned.

Do not marvel, wonder, or try to intellectualize, what can only be Spiritually discerned. Like wind this birth cannot be seen or contrived, but the affects, wherever it blows cannot be denied.  

By the way. The words, Spirit, and wind, in the original text are the same; pneuma: wind, spirit, breath.

⁹ Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”

Jesus knew Nick wouldn’t get it. He’s not the least bit frustrated with that deer in the headlights look from Nick...or us.

He knows the power of a Seed. Nick thought the seed of Abraham, was all he needed. But Jesus is planting the Seed, he really needs. And it will not return void, but will prosper and bear fruit, unto everlasting life.  

¹⁰ Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?

I have a feeling Jesus gave Nick a friendly smile and slap on the back with that statement. But He doesn’t give up. Now Jesus takes it a step deeper, or I should say, higher.

¹¹ Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness.

Jesus used plural personal pronouns, We, Our. He just gave Nick an up close and personal peak at the Trinity. He wasn’t speaking about Himself and His disciples. But about God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Three in One.

Now, Jesus asks a challenging question, as He paints a picture of who He is, and the Divine plan of redemption—His sacrificial death on the cross. 

 ¹² If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.

That’s it. The Way. Jesus only. No works. No religion. No other way to heaven, but by the One, the Son, who descended from heaven.

Not Perushim, Puritan, Separatists, Calvinists, Methodists, Baptists, Whispering Pines Clubhouse-ists… No not one, but One.

¹⁴ And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

There it is. The Truth. The cold, hard, painful, Truth. He came to die. To be lifted up like that serpent on Moses’s pole. Numbers 21:8.

So, when religion tries to add something, anything, other than the cross of Christ, His shed blood for the remission of sins; we are counting His blood shed for the remission of sins, as unworthy.

Lord, deliver us, from such deception

Now the interview builds to a climax, that penetrates the heart of Nicodemus, and has echoed around the world from that day, to this.

 ¹⁵ that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. ¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. ¹⁸ “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

The word believe is a major theme in John; repeated about a hundred times. Five times, right here. However, following in the shadow of that word is a big-little word that too often, goes unnoticed.

Whoever believes in…

Believing takes the spotlight, but the little word, “in” gives context and perspective.

In the original text it’s: εἰς eis (ice).

Defined: to or into (indicating the point reached or entered, of place, time, fig. purpose, result). Literally, "motion into which" implying penetration ("unto," "union") to a particular purpose or result.

The type of belief that results in salvation, is not like the “unsaved believers” we saw at the beginning. Believing “in” is not believing “of” or “about” or intellectual acknowledgement. The demons do that, and tremble. James 2:19.

This type of belief is the kind that penetrates into your very being. Like the belief in someone that only comes from a deep love for them. Like loving someone so much that you believe in them, even when circumstance says you shouldn’t.

The very definition implies the motion of penetration unto union.

God’s voice echoes from the Garden, and the two shall become one flesh. Genesis 2:24.

And from here we can feel Jesus’s earnest prayer for us to be one with Him, “that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.” John 17:21.

¹⁹ And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. ²¹ But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

He came as the Light of the world and the world chose to dwell in the dark.

He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. ¹¹ He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. ¹² But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: ¹³ who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1:10-13.

Let’s pray.

Lord Jesus, we choose You. Help us Lord, to believe in You, not just of You, and about You. Please search our hearts, and expose and expunge any wicked, cold, hard, heart of religiosity. Help us, to love You, with all of our spirit, soul and body.

We love you, forever.

Amen.