John 3:9-12 : Nicodemus answered him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and don’t understand these things? Most certainly I tell you, we speak that which we know, and testify of that which we have seen, and you don’t receive our witness. If I told you earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven…”

When Nicodemus asks how these things could be, Jesus tells Him that He would have expected more from a teacher of Israel. This is a good reminder to us to learn God’s word so that when we tell others about it we will know what we are talking about. I want to hear the words “Well Done” someday when I see Jesus and not “you didn’t understand.” If we trust in the power of the Holy Spirit, we will be able to understand.

Jesus speaks using plurals (we and our) in verse 11. Many believe, as I do, that He was openly speaking on behalf of The Father as God. Starting with the words “Most certainly” He is asserting that He is God and has authority to speak as the God who has seen everything first-hand both in Heaven and on Earth. A Jewish leader would probably be very aware that God uses the plural when referring to Himself. Listen to what it says in Genesis 1:

Genesis 1:26 : God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

God is three yet one. Jesus is both the only one who came from Heaven as God and also became a Son of Man. These words may have shaken Nicodemus because Jesus was not only saying He was a teacher from God, but God Himself. His only real choice now was to recognize Jesus as God and in His authority as God, or to condemn Him as a heretic.