The Inquisitive Pharisee
by Woodrow Kroll
John 3:1-21
When a child wants to know how something works, what it's made of, or what it means, he does a simple thing. He asks a question, then another, and another...well, you know where it goes from there. Asking questions is a key part of learning, no matter what your age or your educational level.
Now there once was an educated man trained in religious laws and practices of his day, extremely knowledgeable about the Old Testament Scriptures, but he had a few questions. So he came to Jesus to ask them. However, what he knew wasn't enough, and Jesus answered questions Nicodemus didn't even expect to ask. Perhaps you know a little about Jesus or God's Word, but it's not enough. As Nicodemus discovered, Jesus has much more to offer,
Now there once was an educated man trained in religious laws and practices of his day, extremely knowledgeable about the Old Testament Scriptures, but he had a few questions. So he came to Jesus to ask them. However, what he knew wasn't enough, and Jesus answered questions Nicodemus didn't even expect to ask. Perhaps you know a little about Jesus or God's Word, but it's not enough. As Nicodemus discovered, Jesus has much more to offer.
Now today I want to move on and talk about the insufficiency of some knowledge. There are lots of people who don't know anything about Jesus; they don't even know He exists. And that's a dilemma. But to know something about Jesus, but not to know enough is an equal dilemma.
It's a problem in our society when we know some things, and we know a little bit, but we don't know enough to really put those "somethings" together, isn't it? I want to talk with you today about a man who had a little bit of knowledge of the Lord Jesus, but not enough. His name is Nicodemus.
Look at this. John 3:1: "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.'"
Now, here's a man who comes to the Lord Jesus by night. I call him "The Inquisitive Pharisee." He comes to the Lord Jesus and he questions the Lord Jesus. But he knows something about Jesus; he knows a little bit about who Jesus is. I want us to focus today on who this man is, however, this man Nicodemus. What do we know about this fellow?
Well, we only know what we can learn from John chapter 3, and John chapter 7, and again in John chapter 19, because Nicodemus is only mentioned three times in the Bible, and in those three chapters--John 7, John 3, and John 19. So, there isn't much we know about him. But we can piece some pieces of the puzzle together. We do know that he was a fair-minded man. He was a man who wanted to do what was right. I believe he came to know the Lord Jesus as his Savior here in John chapter 3.
But later on, in John chapter 7, when the Pharisees were debating about whether Jesus indeed could be the Messiah or not, Nicodemus stepped forward and he said to those Pharisees, "'Does our law judge any man before it hears him and knows what he does?' They answered and said unto him, 'Are you also from Galilee? Search and look, for out of Galilee arises no prophet.'" And you see, he wanted to be fair.
He said, "Look, we cannot judge what Jesus is, or who He is, until we listen to what He has to say. Isn't it just for us to listen to what He has to say?" And the response of the Pharisees was, "Hey, what are you from Galilee also?" They had a very low opinion of people from Galilee. And they said, "Search the Scriptures, there is no prophet ever came out of Galilee." Now, this is one of the problems I find from intellectuals who do not know their Bible very well, because Jonah the prophet was from Galilee. See, these guys were flat-out wrong; they just didn't know it.
And they say to Nicodemus, "Search the Scriptures, see if there's anybody who ever came from Galilee. This Jesus of Nazareth, He can't possibly be of the Messiah. The Messiah certainly wouldn't come from Galilee. That's preposterous." But, this man Nicodemus wanted to be a good example to the others, he wanted to be a fair-minded man. It's important that you and I are fair-minded, isn't it? It's important that we give Jesus His hearing, that we read the Word of God before we make a decision on who Jesus is. We want to be fair people.
Well here John is writing about this man Nicodemus, who was an inquisitive Pharisee; he came to Jesus, he wanted to hear Jesus out, he had some questions he wanted to ask Jesus. This Nicodemus was a fair-minded man. He was also a pretty wealthy man. Now I don't learn that here from John chapter 3, but I do learn it later in John chapter 19. Remember it was Nicodemus along with Joseph of Arimathea who took the body of the Lord Jesus down from the cross and buried it in Joseph of Arimathea's tomb, his family tomb.
But it says in John 19:39 that when Nicodemus and Joseph buried the body of Jesus, that Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes about a hundred pounds weight. Now, just think about this. He's going to take the body of Jesus, and he's going to put this on the body of Jesus--not to embalm the body, but just to perfume the body. And it's a hundred pounds worth of myrrh and aloes to do that.
Now, you'll be happy to know that that would be a Roman pound. John uses Roman time and Roman money, and Roman weights and measurements, and so on. So, it's not really a hundred pounds, as we would think of it today; it's a Roman 100 pounds, which is only 75 pounds. So, here we have a man who brings 75 pounds of precious ointment with which to perfume the body of Jesus. He had to be a pretty wealthy man.
So, this inquisitive Pharisee comes to the Lord Jesus, and he asks his question. We do know that he was a Pharisee. It says that. "There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus" (John 3:1). Now today we think of the Pharisees as pharisaical, isn't that true? That's the way we think of Pharisees. But let's remember that in Jesus' day, while the Pharisees could be very pharisaical, their greater concern was to be pious. Their greatest concern was to do the things that the law required to do, and do it in such a way that they never missed a beat, that they always did exactly what the law required of them to do.
Now, the Pharisees were a party among the Jews that began during the Maccabean period. That would be between the Old Testament and the New Testament. There was a group of Jews who rose up against this wave of Greek influence that was coming over the Jewish Empire, called Hellenism. And the Maccabees rose up to try to quell that Greek influence.
The forerunners of a well-known group today were the Pharisees. And the group that we have, that rose out of the Pharisees today are the Hasidic Jews. You know the Jews with the black hats, and the black pearls, and they're constantly doing things that are pleasing to God--at least in their thinking--well, they are the outgrowth of the Pharisees. So the Pharisees were a very, very pious party. They wanted to do what was right. They had very many well-known people who were part of the Pharisees.
For example, in Jesus' day, Gamaliel, the great teacher of Paul, he was a Pharisee. Paul himself, Saul of Tarsus, he was a Pharisee. Josephus, the man who recorded the Jewish wars and the antiquities of the Jews, he was a Pharisee. So, the Pharisees produced a lot of very important people. But they had a problem. The Pharisees externalized their religion. It was not a religion of the heart; it was a religion of the hands and feet. It was a religion of what you do--not what you believe or what you are. And so everything that was down deep inside was taken out. And that was the tragic error of the Pharisees. They externalized everything that they believed. Now let me give you an example. Since you probably don't read the Babylonian Talmud, or any of the Hebrew writings, let me just pass on an example to you.
In the Babylonian Talmud, to show you how the religion was externalized, in the Babylonian Talmud it says very clearly, ladies, it says that a woman should not look into a mirror on the Sabbath day. Now, you're wondering why. And the answer is, because she may find a gray hair and be tempted to pull it out and that would be work on the Sabbath day and she couldn't do that! See, that's what I mean by externalizing their religion. It became a religion of "do's and don'ts" rather than a religion of the heart.
And the Babylonian Talmud says that on the Sabbath you may use vinegar as a cure for sore throat, but you cannot use it as a gargle. That's what the Talmud says, because that would be pleasurable. I never thought of vinegar as a gargle being pleasurable, but that's what the Talmud says! It also says that if an egg is laid on the Sabbath, it is permissible for you to eat that egg as long as you plan to kill the chicken anyway! Now, you laugh at that, but that's because you are not a Pharisee. You are not living by a standard, a code of conduct, which was all external.
And that's what this man Nicodemus was doing. Nicodemus came to Jesus. He was a ruler of the Jews, which probably means he was a member of the Sanhedrin. He had all his religious ducks in a row! He knew the law well. He wanted to live by the law. He wanted to do everything that pleased God. He was a prominent leader among the Sanhedrin.
When I say a prominent leader, in chapter 3 here at verse 10, when Nicodemus questioned how a man could be born again when he is old, Jesus said to Him, "Are you a master of Israel, and do not know these things?" Let me paraphrase that. He says, "Look, you're a very prominent Jew, and you don't understand this?" See, Nicodemus was a genuine man. He was a genuine person. He really wanted to know. And so he, as an inquisitive Jew, came to Jesus. And, notice that he was a cautious man; he came to Jesus by night.
Now, I've read "everybody and their brother" about what that means, and probably you have as well. And I'm here to tell you today I don't have a clue what that means! It may mean that he simply wanted to have a private audience with the Lord Jesus, so he came at night. It may mean that Jesus was busy during the day, it's the only time he could get to the Lord Jesus, so he came at night. It may mean that he was afraid of recrimination because he was a member of the Sanhedrin. He didn't want others of the Sanhedrin to see him, so he came at night. It may mean that as he being a Rabbi and Jesus being a Rabbi, Rabbi's would have private conversations. This would be the only time the disciples were not around, so he came at night. In all honesty, I don't know why he came at night. But I do know this--he came at night! That's what it says.
See, I don't understand a lot about the Bible, I just understand the things I read. And it says, "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...." Now, I want us to see what he said to the Lord Jesus. All this has been by way of introduction to the man Nicodemus.
This is a man that has significant knowledge, but not sufficient knowledge. Because Nicodemus' problem is, he knows something about Jesus--but he doesn't know enough to bring him to Jesus as the Savior. Look what he says to Jesus, verse 2, he says, "Rabbi, we know," now here is our key word John, K-N-O-W. Remember we were talking before about those who came to John the Baptist and John says, "there stands One among you whom you do not know," (John 1:26); no knowledge of the Lord Jesus.
Now, here's a man who has some knowledge of the Lord Jesus, "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." Now, isn't it interesting, this inquisitive Pharisee comes to the Lord Jesus and he says to the Lord Jesus, "There are some things I know about you, Jesus." But the inquisitive Pharisee is also a very incomplete Pharisee because he doesn't know enough about Jesus.
Let's see what he does know. First of all, he knows Jesus is a Rabbi. Now, this is a polite term of address. It would be like us today calling someone "Sir," or calling another person "Madam," or calling someone "Doctor" or something like that. It's a polite term of address. This man, a Rabbi, comes to the Lord Jesus, a Rabbi, and he addresses him as a Rabbi. And then he says this, "we know." Now, who is the "we" he's talking about here? Is this an editorial we? Is he saying we, that would be my friends and me? Who is we?
Well I have always found, folks, that if you want to understand the Bible, the best way to understand the Bible before you go to the commentators...now I have to be careful what I say here because I'm an editor of a commentary. But before you go to the commentators, there is a wonderful principle of reading God's Word that helps you understand God's Word. And that is, read a little further.
When you read the passage around the one you want to understand, it's surprising what you learn. Let's go back up to verse 23 of the preceding chapter, chapter 2 verse 23. "Now when He [Jesus] 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 He had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man."
You see, when Jesus came to the feast in Jerusalem, everybody gathered around Jesus. They were amazed at all the signs that Jesus did. They were taken back by all that. And this man Nicodemus is a part of that larger group here in the last several verses of the preceding chapter. And he says, "Rabbi, we" all of us who have watched these signs "we know that You are a teacher sent from God. You are a Rabbi. You are a man sent from God. Nobody could do these kinds of things that we have seen You do unless God be with Him."
So he knows something about the Lord Jesus. He knows that the Lord Jesus is a teacher, a prophet from God. But the reason for Nicodemus' conviction that Jesus is sent from God, is not theological, it's practical. He says, "Jesus, we have watched You do these things we cannot explain. Therefore, You have to be from God." Now I want you to know, theologically that is incorrect.
There are lots of things that you and I cannot explain that are not from God. The Devil is the great counterfeiter. The Devil can do a lot of things in this world that we might attribute to God that are really not part of God's plan. And here this man, Nicodemus, said, "Look, I've watched You do these signs. I know, then, You have to be from God." Well, it just so happens Jesus is from God. But knowing that Jesus is from God because of the signs you have seen Him do is insufficient knowledge to save you from your sins.
And I want to make that as clear as I can from the story of Nicodemus. Because there are people who flock to the Lord Jesus all the time, there are people who flock to the Lord Jesus at the beginning of the 21st century. And they're coming to Jesus for the wrong reason. They're looking to Jesus for the wrong things. They hope to get from Jesus--the wrong perspective.
Now let me show you just one example. Put your hand in there and turn ahead to chapter 6. Let's begin at verse 26, John 6:26, they have just called the Lord Jesus "Rabbi," the preceding verse, the same word that Nicodemus has used. And then, "Jesus answered them and said, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.'"
See, He's talking here to the people who had been filled by the Lord Jesus the day before. And what He is saying to them is, "You are coming to Me for the wrong reasons. You're not even coming to Me because of the signs, you are coming to Me because you're hungry." And look, when people are hungry, they'll go to anybody who can feed them. But just because Jesus could feed them the bread of this life does not mean that He is the Savior of the world.
Nicodemus came to Jesus for the wrong reason. He had the wrong kind of faith. He had faith in the signs that Jesus did. But signs are just a way to strengthen true saving faith. Signs do not produce true saving faith. Only the Spirit of God can do that.
And so Nicodemus comes to the Lord Jesus, and He says, "we know that you are Man sent from God." And his knowledge is based on his own observation, not based on his belief that Jesus Christ is God. And, my friends, if you come to the Lord Jesus today, and you say, "You know, there's something different about Jesus. He's different from Mohammed, He's different from Buddha, He's different from all these other religious leaders, I'm attracted to Him because of His difference," I have bad news for you. That is not saving faith. You don't come to Jesus because He's different; you come to Him because He's God.
And when this man Nicodemus came to Jesus, while he had some understanding of Jesus, it was insufficient understanding to save him.
And that's why it's important when you and I are witnessing to our friends and our family, that at some point, my dear friend, you have to get beyond the fact that Jesus can get them to heaven. And you've got to get to the fact that the reason He can is because He is God Himself and they need a Savior. And only Jesus can save them from their sins. You see, Nicodemus' problem is he believes Jesus is a teacher, he doesn't believe Jesus is the Savior.
And when you believe that Jesus is a great teacher, when you believe that He is a great miracle-worker, when you believe that Jesus was a great man--you believe true things about Jesus, but your faith is not the kind of faith that saves. You have to come to believe that Jesus is the only Savior this world will ever have.
And that is something Nicodemus has not been able to do. He had insufficient knowledge of Jesus.
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