“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
                “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things?  I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony.  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.
John 3:9-13 (NIV)

If you were to ask people to give their opinions as to who the most intelligent people in the history of the world have been, it is a sad reality that Jesus would probably never make most people’s list.  There would be great mathematicians like Isaac Newton and Einstein, perhaps some philosophers like Socrates and Plato, and maybe some inventors like Henry Ford and Thomas Edison.  But probably not Jesus.  Many people respect Jesus or honor Him, but most people just don’t think of Him as being extremely intelligent or extremely knowledgeable.

Quite the opposite is true, however.  Jesus, being God in the flesh, literally knew everything that there could possibly be to know.  He actually knew and still knows answers to questions that we don’t even know enough to ask!  As the creator God, the one through whom all things were created (John 1:3; 1 Corinthians 8:6; 1 Corinthians 1:16; Hebrews 1:1-2) no one would have had a greater understanding of how the world and the universe came about, as well as how life is structured and works best.  As the God of history, who personally knew and interacted with the patriarchs (cf. John 8:56-58), He knew not only the actions of each of them, but their characters and thought processes as well.  As the one who spoke through the prophets, He knew exactly what was the true meaning of each prophetic word and picture.

Very few, if any, of the people in Jesus’ day understood these things about Him.  So, just like today, He was viewed by many who liked Him as a good man or a great teacher (and by those who were threatened by Him as a charlatan and an infidel!).  But even in Jesus’ own day He wasn’t considered a great intellectual, or someone who had all of the answers.

Jesus usually tried to put the information that He gave out on the “lower shelves” so that it was understandable.  But even the intelligent folks of His day frequently disappointed Him by not being able to understand what He was telling them about even simple, earthly things.  And His question to Nicodemus really is cogent:  “I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?”  If Nicodemus wasn’t willing to accept His wisdom about the simple things of the world, how was He going to be able to accept what He wanted to tell him about the deep things of God?

These days there are many people who discount Jesus when He talks about such things as the creation of the world and of mankind (Matthew 19:4); about the world-wide flood of Noah and the total destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as real, historical events (Luke 17:26-29); and about the fact that Moses really did write the first five books of the Old Testament (Mark 12:26).  They will tell you that when Jesus talked about these things, He was simply the product of His times, who only believed and taught what He Himself had been taught.  They will go on to say that these days we are so much more sophisticated and know so much more than Jesus did, and so they feel comfortable discounting and writing off what Jesus had to say about worldly things.  Jesus warning is, of course, that if we discount what He had to say about these simple, earthly matters, what would possibly make us believe Him when He talks about the things of heaven?

The core of the matter rests on who we really believe Jesus to be.  If we believe that He was merely a man, even an “enlightened” man, but one who was merely a product of His times and was mistaken or deluded in things like the age of the world or how God created it, then we cannot accept what He says about why He came or how to be saved.  After all, if He was wrong in those very simple things, what makes us believe that He was right when it comes to things infinitely more complex?  If we only can accept Jesus as a mere man, and not as God in the flesh who knows everything, then we cannot accept His sacrificial death on our behalf, because the death of a mere man, even the death of a very impressive man, even though it might be a wonderful example of devotion for us, cannot save us any more than our own death could.

But if Jesus really was who He said that He was (which I believe with all my heart!), then we can take Jesus at His word no matter what the topic.  When He speaks to us about the creation of the heavens and earth and all that is in them, He speaks with absolute authority and truth.  When He speaks to us about the fall of mankind and the horrible consequences of that fall, He speaks with absolute authority and truth.  When He talks to us about the patriarchs, what they were like and what they did, He speaks with absolute authority.  When He tells us what He came to do on our behalf and how to be saved, we can take that to the bank, because He speaks with absolute authority.  And when He tells us how the world will go in the future, and what His plans are for us, we can walk forward into that future with absolute trust and security, knowing that He has spoken with absolute authority as the one and only Son of God.