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Yeshua is the Most Important Man Who Ever Lived. He brought the world the Most Important Message, a message that must be believed for human beings, who are alienated from God and headed to Hell, not Heaven, to death, not life, to be reconciled to their Creator and live forever.

Yeshua is not only the Most Important Man, He is also the risen Messiah, and the Son of God, who is alive now, seated at the right hand of God the Father, where He rules as the Lord of Heaven and Earth.

We want to be aware of Yeshua, close to Him, connected to Him, receiving power from Him, learning from Him, directed by Him.We want to understand as much as we can about Him. We want to line up our thoughts and our lives with Him. We want to continue His ministry of teaching, evangelism and good deeds. The divinely-inspired book of John helps us do that.

Most of the Jewish leaders in Yeshua’s generation decided, early in His ministry, that Yeshua was not the Messiah. Their rejection became the position of the Jewish people of that generation and has continued to this day – to our great loss and sorrow. However, in every generation there has been a remnant who went against the majority and believed in Yeshua. Nicodemus was such a one.

Now there was a Pharisee: The Pharisees were a group of religious elites who were very committed to their version of Judaism. And the Judaism of the Pharisees formed Orthodox Judaism. Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. Out of the hundreds of thousands of men within Israel, only 70 were members of the Sanhedrin. It took someone special to be a member of that august group. Being a member of the Sanhedrin was a very high honor. Nicodemus was a religious leader and a political leader of the highest order. And, he knew that the young Rabbi from Nazareth was Someone who is very special and Nicodemus wanted to talk to Him.

He came to Yeshua at night – probably because he knew that sentiment among the leadership had turned against Yeshua, and he wanted a private conversation that wouldn’t become known to the other leaders. He came to Yeshua at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs You are doing if God were not with him.”

Nicodemus had some spiritual understanding. He knew Yeshua was a Rabbi who was teaching the truth. He knew Yeshua was doing miracles, and a prophet who did miracles hadn’t been in Israel in hundreds of years, and that made Yeshua very special. Nicodemus knew that under normal circumstances, only someone who is close to God is able to do miracles, and so Nicodemus rightly concluded that Yeshua was a genuine rabbi and miracle-working prophet sent by God.

Yeshua loves people who know something about Him, and respond to Him with respect and want to know more about Him. They seek Him and He helps them find Him. They have some truth. He gives them more truth. Yeshua knew that He was the Messiah, and with the arrival of the Messiah, and His death and resurrection, God was going to begin transforming people in a powerful, new way. Yeshua replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” God the Father is the High King of a very real kingdom. Humanity joined the rebellion of the fallen angels and rebelled against the High King. As a consequence of joining that rebellion, our nature became rebellious. Human beings with a fallen, rebellious sin nature cannot enter God’s kingdom unless they receive a new nature. They must be born again. They must experience a spiritual transformation, a spiritual birth.

Note well that Yeshua is making this statement to Nicodemus, who was a great political and religious leader of the Chosen People. Since the arrival of the Messiah, if any human being could enter the kingdom of God apart from being born again, it would be Nicodemus. If Rabbinic Judaism could save anyone, it would be Nicodemus. But Yeshua’s statement is directed to Nicodemus and includes Nicodemus. Even a great religious leader like Nicodemus must be born again in order to enter God’s eternal kingdom.

Yeshua often used common physical realities, which are easy for us to understand, like bread, water and light, to describe spiritual realities which are harder to understand, as He did here referring to birth. However, Yeshua’s reference to being born again wasn’t clear to Nicodemus. “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” But Yeshua was not talking about a second physical birth. He was talking about the need for a spiritual birth, which He clarified: Yeshua answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water (referring to physical birth) and the Spirit (referring to spiritual birth). We need both – physical birth and spiritual birth. Physical birth alone is insufficient to enable anyone to enter God’s real and perfect and eternal kingdom.

Yeshua made this point even clearer: Flesh gives birth to flesh. The fallen nature that we inherit from Adam and Eve and which all human beings are born with, can only create more human beings who share the fallen nature. Fallen human beings can only create more fallen human beings, and now that Messiah has arrived, being a fallen human being, no matter how good that fallen human being is, is not enough to enable him to enter the kingdom of God. Flesh gives birth to flesh but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. Yeshua makes it clear that human beings are headed to death, not life, to Hell, not Heaven, and the only way to live with God in His kingdom is to be born by the Spirit of God, so that the Spirit of God produces a new nature. A new nature that results in the ability to live in God’s kingdom is something that only the Spirit of God can do. We cannot do that for ourselves. We cannot give ourselves or anyone else that new, godly nature.

And, Yeshua makes it clear that this teaching about the need for a spiritual birth is not new. It’s something that a great teacher like Nicodemus should have been aware of. You should not be surprised at My saying, ‘You must be born again.’

Spiritual birth caused by the Spirit of God is real, but mysterious. Yeshua compares it to another physical reality – the wind. The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

The wind blows wherever it pleases. Just as the wind comes from the sky and blows wherever it wants to, and can’t be controlled by human beings, so it is with the Spirit of God. He comes from Heaven. He touches whoever He wants to. Yeshua is telling us that it is the will of the sovereign Spirit that results in the spiritual transformation of one human being and not another. Spiritual birth originates from the will of God, not the will of man. Spiritual birth is initiated by God, not man. It is the Spirit of God choosing us, blowing on us, influencing us, interacting with us, wooing us, drawing us, bringing the right people and circumstances across our path at the right time, planting seeds of truth in us that brings us to the place where we are ready to experience spiritual birth.

Just as wind can’t be seen, but is real, the Spirit can’t be seen, but He is real. We know wind is real by its effects – the sounds it makes, the pressure it exerts, leaves moving, branches swaying, dust blowing, water stirring. Likewise, we can know the Spirit of God is real as we observe the pressure He exerts on human beings. They become interested in the Three-In-One God and in the Bible and in salvation. They develop a heightened awareness of God and the spiritual world, and the importance of Biblical morality and good character and holy living. They develop a desire to do things God’s way. They begin to experience peace and happiness and hope, even in the midst of a fallen world.

“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked. Nicodemus was a Rabbi, and the Judaism that Nicodemus was familiar with didn’t emphasize the need for spiritual transformation. But it should have. It there in the writings of Jeremiah, and connected to the arrival of the Messiah. “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah … I will put My teaching in their minds and write it on their hearts … they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest” declares the Lord.” When the Messiah comes, a new relationship with God will be available so that we really know God and the Word of God becomes internalized – in our minds and hearts.

And spiritual birth is there in Ezekiel: I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean … I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit in you and move you to follow My decrees and be careful to keep My laws. When the Messiah arrives, there will be spiritual transformation for the faithful remnant. God’s Spirit will be given and we will receive a new heart and a new mind. That’s a new nature. That’s a spiritual birth.

Yeshua was disappointed that, in spite of what He said, and in spite of the truths found in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, one of Israel’s greatest teachers did not understand the need for a spiritual birth. “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Yeshua, “and do you not understand these things?

Even though Nicodemus didn’t understand, Yeshua assured Nicodemus that He did understand. Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. Yeshua assured Nicodemus that He knew what He was talking about. He had first-hand knowledge of the spiritual realities about which He spoke. Therefor He is to be believed.

And, Yeshua informed Nicodemus that knew a lot more about spiritual reality. He could have told humanity about other great heavenly realities, of which He had first-hand knowledge, but for the most part humanity didn’t listen to Yeshua, and when truth isn’t received, additional truth isn’t given. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into Heaven except the one who came from Heaven – the Son of Man. Yeshua declared to Nicodemus that He had a heavenly origin. He came from Heaven, where He experienced its amazing realities. He came from Heaven to Earth and became the Son of Man, the ideal human being. If the perfect man who came from Heaven should be believed if He tells us about heavenly realities, how much more should He be believed if He tells us what God is doing on Earth, and how God is working on Earth to bring salvation to doomed humanity?

Yeshua had told Nicodemus that to enter the kingdom of God, he needed to be born again – which is something that only the Spirit of God can do. Now Yeshua gives Nicodemus the way that spiritual birth can take place – through faith in Messiah. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in Him.” Yeshua used an analogy from the history of Israel found in the Torah. After leaving Egypt and being in the wilderness, the people became impatient and accused God and Moses of bringing them into the wilderness – to kill them. And they complained that there was not enough food and water and they were sick of the miserable manna that miraculously appeared each day! God punished them for their ungrateful, rebellious attitude by sending poisonous snakes which bit many people. When many died, and the people were sufficiently disciplined, they came to Moses and apologized. Then the Lord offered a cure: If they made a bronze snake and put it on a pole, anyone who was bitten and looked at the snake would be healed.

Yeshua is teaching us a principle about the nature of salvation – that the cure must be related to the disease. Snakes bit the people, and the people were required to look at a snake. Yeshua is teaching us that humanity has been bitten by the satanic serpent. We are spiritually poisoned. If we do nothing, we will die. But, we can be healed by looking at Yeshua. When a person understands that the Son of God became a man in order to atone for humanity, and He died on a cross and rose from the dead, and is alive now, the living Savior and Lord, and that person transfers his loyalties to Yeshua, that person will be healed. He will not die. He will live forever.

Next comes the best known verse in the best known Book. It comes from Yeshua Himself. It gives us the Father’s motivation that caused Him to send the Son to die on a cross, like the snake placed on a pole. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. The Son of God is teaching us that the whole world of fallen human beings is perishing. Human beings are perishable. They will perish like a rotten piece of meat or over-ripe fruit. They will come to destruction. They will come to ruination. If an individual does nothing, he will perish. He will die the First Death, physical death, followed by the Second Death. God the Father knows we are perishing and loves us and wants to prevent us from perishing. He wants us to live. He wants us to have eternal life and live with Him forever. And the one and only way to avoid perishing is to believe, to believe in that Yeshua is the unique Son of God; and believing means knowing who Yeshua is and becoming loyal to Him.

What motivated the Father to give His unique Son to suffer and die for us? Love. The love that God has for human beings made in His image. Love, but it’s a special kind of love. It’s a giving kind of love, a painful kind of love, a sacrificial kind of love. This kind of love and the desire to save perishing, headed-for-destruction human beings is what motivated the Father to give the Son. And Yeshua reinforces this teaching that love and the desire to save is what motivated God to give the Son by mentioning the opposite idea: The giving of the Messiah was not motivated by any desire to harm people. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.

God the Father sent the Messiah to save humanity, not to condemn humanity, because humanity is already condemned. We were condemned long before Yeshua was sent. The Lord warned Adam: You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it, mot tamoot – dying you will die, you will certainly die. When Adam and Eve disobeyed, the verdict was determined. Adam and Eve and everyone who would come from them were guilty of sin, disobedience and rebellion and condemned to death.

But, thanks be to God, there is a way to escape the death sentence! There is a way to be pardoned! Yeshua promises: Whoever believes in the Son is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. The way to escape the execution that follows condemnation is by believing in God’s unique Son, which means becoming loyal to Yeshua.

That means that a Yeshua-rejecting Judaism cannot be the way. That means that Islam is not the way. That means that being a good person, or your good deeds outweighing your bad deeds, or keeping the Ten Commandments, are not the way.

Escaping execution after being condemned to death is not complicated. It’s so simple – just believe in Yeshua. Know who He is and become loyal to Him. Even though it’s so simple, most people won’t be pardoned. Yeshua tells us why. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. Humanity is endarkened. Our thinking is dark and chaotic. We are confused about the most important things, like God and the way of salvation and the inspiration of the Bible and the right way to live and the reality of sin, the day of judgment, Heaven and Hell. People have wicked thoughts and engage in shameful behaviors. That’s why we don’t like the light. The thought about coming to God on His terms and the need for confession and repentance and living a righteous, God-honoring life makes us uncomfortable. We don’t want to confess and abandon our shameful thoughts and deeds. Proud, rebellious human nature doesn’t want to submit to God. It’s more comfortable to ignore the light and remain in the darkness.

But, there will be a remnant, who the Spirit of God is drawing to Yeshua, who will be willing to come into the light. They begin to want God more than their dark selves; the truth more than ignorance, God’s approval more than the world’s approval. They become willing to made the changes they need to make, and become willing to experience shame, sacrifice and hardship in order to leave the darkness and come into the light. May God give us the grace to make the changes necessary to come into the light. Amen?

So, who is Yeshua according to this first part of the divinely inspired third chapter of the book of John?

Yeshua is a Rabbi who taught the truth. If the truth sets us free, and it does, then to be set free from captivity to Satan and the demons, sin and the sin nature, set free from the death sentence already pronounced to condemned humanity, you need Yeshua.

Yeshua is a prophet, the ultimate prophet. A prophet speaks for God. Do you want God to speak to you in the greatest possible way? You need Yeshua.

Yeshua is Someone who knows we must receive a new nature in order to join God in His eternal kingdom, and being born again comes from the Spirit of Yeshua. Do you want to enter and live forever in the kingdom of God? You need Yeshua.

Yeshua is the Son of God who came from Heaven, where He experienced its amazing realities, then came to Earth and became the Son of Man, the ideal human being, and from Earth He returned to Heaven. If you want to experience the blessedness of Heaven – you need Yeshua.

Yeshua is the light and is able to help endarkened humanity come to the light. Do you want truth, wisdom, revelation, happiness, victory and life? You need Yeshua!