• John 3:3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
• John 3:5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
• John 3:11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.

The interesting part of these three passages is His plea to the listener to believe His testimony. He wants us to know what it takes to obtain eternal life. He is literally telling us “This is how it works.”

John 3:12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

What earthly things is Jesus bearing witness to that are so hard to believe?

All we have is His Word. We were not there, we did not see the miracles that were performed. These were earthly things, things done in real time, to real people, in a manner that was not natural. The supernatural is something that is hard to believe if we do not see it with our own eyes. Even if we do see it, we want to understand how it happened.

• John 5:19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.
• John 5:30 “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.
• John 8:28 So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.

Jesus invokes the Son of Man clause. He declares to anyone that will listen that He is the One that the prophet Daniel prophesied about. If we are to believe His testimony then we are obliged to believe that the bible is valid and that prophecies are to be believed.

Daniel 7:14 And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

Now we have one more piece of the puzzle which is a real life problem that aligns itself with human behavior, attitudes and actions. Rulers, both kings and priests, are not willing to give up their authority and influence.