John 3 – Night is a popular time to go to Jesus
“Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, ‘Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.’ In reply Jesus declared, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.’ ‘How can a man be born when he is old?’ Nicodemus asked. ‘Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!’ Jesus answered, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, “You must be born again.” 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.’”
I have always wondered why the first Greek word “pneuma” is translated wind and the second is translated “Spirit”. Did Jesus mean to express two separate ideas or is he referring to the same idea and we need to adjust how we understand Spirit/wind. I’m sure there’s a good dissertation out there on this subject that I need to read.
Overall this is where we begin to learn more of what John introduced in chapter one: how to be a child of God. In chapter one we learned that all who receive/call on the name of Jesus have been given the right to be children of God. Here Jesus goes further by saying we must be born again of the Spirit. So we may be able to infer that to be a child of God we must receive Jesus who will rebirth our spirit via the Spirit of God.
