Born Again or Born From Above? The Hidden Meaning of John 3 Explained (DCLC 1984)

Let us see the Lord Jesus beginning to work His miracles. He’s just left Canaan. He has worked His first miracles. The dam breaks, and He begins working many miracles, and this is the foundation of His popularity. People like this, and they begin saying, “Oh, this is the Messiah, and this is the Son of God.” And He could have said yes, right then, right there, and they would have crowned Him King, taken Him into Jerusalem, and He could have had a big bloody battle and set up a regime there. But it says He did not give Himself to man because He knew man. And then it says, He knew what was in man. And let us begin there.

He has come. Let us take the setting of this incident as taking place in a living room. Is that alright? It may have taken place outside on a field somewhere. I don’t know. It could have been late evening in a home. It could have been late evening somewhere outside, but I’m going to put it inside. The Lord has just come away from a vast multitude that would have crowned Him King based on a few miracles. He is fellowshipping within Himself, and He is fellowshipping with the Father, and He is the only Christian on this earth. He is the only believer on this earth. He’s the only saved person on this earth. He is the only living creature with God dwelling in Him. He’s the only person who has the Holy Spirit within Him. He’s the only person who has a living spirit. The spirit of all other men is at this moment still dead, though He seems to be able to perceive who will and who will not be raised from that death.

He is considering what is at this present moment in man, and what is at this present moment in man? The answer is nothing. Death. That there is, as He looks at each of us with eyes that see through the scene into the unseen, He sees a gray thing deep in here lying dead, a spirit that is dead. He looks about, and He sees us all, and we are dead men walking, which really shows us where the Lord puts His values. He does not put His value on our body or on our soul but on our spirit. That if the spirit is dead, the man is dead. We are dead men walking about. We cannot see spiritual things. Whatever their judgment of Him was, it was in fact in error.

Now, please don’t misunderstand what I’m saying, but their judgment of Him was in error because their judgment was made in the wrong place. Do you understand what I’m saying? Their judgment was made based on miracles and reason and upon their own perverted, fallen souls that were ready and looking for somebody to lead them out of enemy occupation. And this is no place to build a kingdom. That’s building on sand. And He is recognizing what is in man at this moment. I want to say to you again that He is doing this within Himself and within His own being is the Father with whom He is fellowshipping. But within His own being, down deep within His inmost parts, there is another realm. And that other realm is not in those other people. He will not, cannot, would never dare trust Himself to man because He knows what’s in man. There are inward wrong motives. There is no power, no unction of living a life not human but living a higher life by means of a higher life form.

None of that is there. No equipment. So much is missing. So much of the gospel is not there yet. No sense of another realm. No way to contact the unseen realm. No way to walk into the heavenlies. Boy, was that crowd ill-equipped. And boy, we were ill-equipped until we were saved…Until the resurrection.

How well equipped are you right now? Not very. I’ll go along with that. But you are going to be so equipped when this conference is over. I want to tell you how equipped you are. If you can but see, there is within you right now a portion of your being that is risen from the dead. Anything that has risen from the dead has already tasted death, and now is beyond death, is beyond the powers of Satan, beyond the powers of this world, and will live forever. I think I better quit there. But that’s not all. There is right now within your being a portion of you, please hear me, that is capable of traversing time and space.

There is a portion of you right now that is capable of fellowshipping personally with Jesus Christ and with the Father. There is within you right now a door to Christ that you can walk through—the glorious Christ, the transfigured reigning Christ. There is access through that door in you to fellowship with the Father. In you right now is a place outside time and space that is eternal and in the heavenlies. But that wasn’t in anybody except the Lord Jesus Christ at this moment. At this moment, the Lord Jesus Christ considers all this, and He moves into the internal realm. He goes there and He fellowships with the Father, and They consider together the inadequacy of those people that day who sought to make Him King, and they fellowship concerning that which is lacking. But oh, they’re not really all that negative. They fellowship together with that which Christ has within Him.

That Christ now has within Him a living spirit, an access through that door, and a capacity to fellowship, to hear the Father speak and to respond and speak to Him. In His internal parts, the Lord Jesus Christ goes through that door and stands in heavenly realms. And as He stands there in His spirit, the winds of heaven blow on His face. There’s a wind in heaven. There is a wind in the heavens. And He even…not even…But He senses the holy wind drawing Him in His fellowship to the Father and uniting Him with the Father in perfect oneness, that they knew in eternity past.

And as He stands there in spirit in heavenly realms, if you please, hiding from His earthly problems and fellowshipping with His Father on the riches that have been and the riches that will be, the riches that are going to be in some. And as He feels the winds of heaven blowing in His face, and as He senses the fellowship and communion of the Holy Wind and the Father, there comes at that moment a knock on the door.

The Lord quickly re-enters this stinky place; the material realms. His soul, His human parts now come into a slightly larger play. He’ll have to speak to one of these dead men walking. And oh, what fascination there is, as He is in fellowship with the Father, the incidents of that day, what fascination it is that walks through that door. You cannot imagine what has come through that door. What has come through that door is someone who is born in an aristocratic home. When he was born, that little kid was born, Mama held him; she looked at Him and gave him the most interesting name. She said, “This little baby is superior to most people.” And that’s what she called Him: Superior to the people. How would you like to walk around all your life with a name “Superior to the People?” My name is superior to the people. My name is superior to people. What’s your name? My name is superior to people.

There is a medal that was once called the superior medal. It was an excellent metal out of which we make many of our alloys. It is a very outstanding metal, and it took the word from the Greek word nickel, which means superior metal, called nickel. And then there is the word democracy, from which we get the word Demus, and you put those words together, and you get Nickel Demus. A man superior to the people – boy, was Mama proud of her little baby. (laughter)

Well, he turns out to be exactly that. He obviously comes from a very influential home. He is not only superior to people, but probably very wealthy. He is also a Pharisee, which means he can quote a large portion of what we call the Old Testament. Also means he’s married and has one child. He walks around with the garments on, little bells, little tassels around here. And he is an extremely religious man. On top of all this, he’s very, very religious. And on top of all that, he is a ruler. He is one of the 70 Sanhedrin. He’s a ruler of the Sanhedrin.