John 3-4,
John 3
John 3:1-3
Nicodemus was a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin; the ruling council of 70
who governed the religious affairs of Israel and who were responsible to the
Romans for maintaining civil rule.
Nicodemus was also a teacher (rabbi) and a Pharisee, so he would have
been the best of the best. And yet the
best Israel had to offer came to Jesus at night and could not grasp spiritual
matters. I think John mentioned the
evening visit for an important reason.
Consider what Jesus says in John 3:19.
Night is an important theme here, and under the cover of darkness, a
person’s sins just don’t seem as bad.
The impression I get here from Nicodemus is that he approached Jesus
hesitantly, perhaps even somewhat jealous.
How long had Nicodemus been ministering for God? It doesn’t say, but it seems to me that
Nicodemus saw something in Jesus that he didn’t see in himself. I get the impression that Nicodemus was
looking for advice on how his life and his ministry could become deeply rooted
in Spiritual things. “People never respond
like that when I preach”, Nicodemus observed.
“What must I do to have that kind of effect on people”? I think that’s what was going through his
mind, especially considering how Jesus responds. “You want this kind of Spirituality then you
will need to be born from above (or “born again”). Notice that Nicodemus never even asks a
question. He merely states that Jesus is
truly gifted by God. And in response,
almost knowing what Nicodemus was thinking, Jesus tells him to be Born Again;
to have a Spiritual transformation.
John 3:5 What
did Jesus mean by being born of the water and of the Spirit? There are several views. Some feel that this refers to “natural” birth
and “Spiritual birth”. Others feel that
it refers to the act of being baptized, a necessary part of regeneration
(although this view contradicts other passages that say otherwise, like John
3:16, for example). Still others say
that it implies the work of John the Baptist combined with the work of
Jesus. This view actually seems plausible. John called the nation to repentance, and
symbolized a repentant heart through a water baptism. Jesus called the nation to belief through
faith in Him. So these words possibly
mean that Jesus looked at Nicodemus and said, “If you want to understand what’s
going on here, you will first need to repent of you sins, and instead of
placing you faith in a system, place your faith in Me”. And for a Pharisee to hear that he needed to
repent of sin was a difficult statement to comprehend.
John 3:9
Nicodemus wondered how a Spiritual transformation can take place. Shocked, Jesus wonders how he could not know
this. Nicodemus was THE teacher in
Israel, so how could such a learned man miss passages like Isaiah 32:15,
Ezekiel 36:25-27, or Joel 2:28-29. The
answer is obvious; God will institute a Spiritual awakening. And Jesus is trying to tell Nicodemus that He
is the One through whom this awakening will come (John 3:14-15).
John 3:16
This gift of eternal life and of salvation is to be received, not
earned. That’s what makes it the most
unusual statement by and god who humanity has ever created. No other god offers life to those who simply
believe. No other god is so gracious and
loving. No other god has ever provided
the means necessary for a person to receive the reward of Heaven. This is the one phrase that sets Christianity
apart from all the rest. Jesus tells
Nicodemus that He will do what Nicodemus cannot do for himself, if only he
would believe that the Man standing before him is the long awaited Messiah; the
Christ.
John 3:17 The
word “Judge” in this verse is the Greek word Krino which means “to be summoned to trial. So what Jesus says is that He did not come to
earth the first time to summon us to trial but to provide a way to escape the
trial altogether. However, this does
imply that a day is coming when all will be summoned to trial.
John 3:18-21
Wherever Christ is, there is light.
And when the light of Christ shines, darkness is revealed. I think this is why some people do not like
coming to church. Some people talk about
how judgmental Christians are, but I really meet few judgmental
Christians. What I think is happening is
that a person (like Nicodemus) starts hanging around followers of Christ, and
soon their sin stands in stark contrast to the righteousness of Christ. It is not the Christian who judges them; it
is their sin that judges them. Even
Christ does not judge (yet). He merely
reveals. In the darkness it is difficult
to distinguish black from blue or red.
Only when exposed to the light are we able to distinguish any
difference. And frankly, I think this is
what happens to people who get all nervous around Christians, especially around
Christians filled with the Spirit of God.
They are nervous because they are not such a wonderful person after
all. They are not as perfect as they had
been led to believe. So they are given
two choices, either confess their sin or run and hide. It’s that simple. And those who run and hide have already
admitted they are sinful. I ask this
simple question to those who reject Jesus or hate Christians. I ask what they are afraid of; why are they
trying to hide, and what do they want to keep secret. I think this is what was going through the
mind of Nicodemus, I really do, but the good news is that apparently his
attitude changed. Looking ahead at John
7:50-51, we see Nicodemus not so silent or secretive about his feelings toward
Jesus. He even helped bury Jesus once He
died on the cross (John 19:39-40).
John 3:25 The
debate about ceremonial cleansing surrounded the idea that a Jew needed to be
immersed. You see, Ritual Washings were
already happening. The Essenes (monastic
Jews living in the countryside ) had their own prescribed ritual of immersion,
as indicated in their Manual of Discipline
(a document found among the Dead Sea Scrolls).
The Pharisee’s had their particular mandates on washing. So what was significant about John’s baptism? What stands out here is that John’s baptism
was in preparation for something, not the end of something, unlike the Essene
Baptism or the Ritual Hand Washing.
Truthfully, the end of the Christian journey is not reached on the day
of water Baptism, nor is it reached on the day of Spiritual baptism. Actually, these two baptisms more
appropriately mark the beginning of the Christian journey.
John 3:26-36
In John’s testimony, there is a truth that is often missed by most. John the Apostle mentions God’s Wrath several
times, a point not mentioned in the other three Gospels. It’s important to note the wording,
though. Look closely at John 3:36,
specifically the second half of that verse.
“Anyone who
doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s
angry judgment.” Do you see
the important word here? “Remains”, says
John. In other words, all are under
God’s angry judgment. “The wrath of God
abides on us all”. God’s wrath is not
given to those who reject Jesus; His wrath is already there. That explains what Jesus meant in John 3:18. In other words, we are all born into sin; all
have fallen short of the glory of God.
It is not God who sends anyone to hell; we condemn ourselves. We condemn ourselves to the place of weeping
and gnashing of teeth by rejecting Jesus as Lord. God sent His Son to redeem us and rescue us. Is He then to blame for our rejection of the
Son?
John 4
John 4:1-6 Because of the hatred between Jews and Samaritans, most Jews would take a route east of the region (see map below). However, John says that Jesus needed to go through Samaria. Really? He was in that big of a rush? I suspect Jesus needed to go through Samaria because He had an appointment with a woman at a well.
John 4:7-19
In this first part of this dialog Jesus basically is calling this woman
to repentance. She is asked to confess
her sin, ironically quite similar to what Jesus told Nicodemus to do (born of
the water and of the Spirit). The woman
does confess. She admits that she has no
husband. But when Jesus tells her the
true depth of her sin (you’ve had five so far), notice how quickly she changes
the subject (see John 4:20).
John 4:20-24
She changes the subject and talks about proper worship. In other words she was trying to find out if
she could worship God while still remaining an unrepentant sinner. She felt (and many do today as well), that
worship was something external; that God could be worshiped regardless of the
condition of our heart. But that simply
is not true. It’s important for us to
know this. We can worship God while a
sinner, but we need to admit that we are sinners (“Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst for righteousness”, not “who are righteous”). She was not willing to admit she was living
in sin; consequently her worship was missing that essential element of spirit.
On a side note here, some today want worship to be
purely spiritual; an exercise in feeling good.
Others pound the pulpit and leave people feeling miserable and
helpless. True worship is a combination
of both. True worship happens when sin
is revealed, our helplessness is seen, and our salvation is made known.
John 4:28-30
I’m not convinced this woman was truly born again, but Jesus certainly
impressed this woman. “Could this
be the Messiah”, she asked. However, she
must have been quite enthusiastic about her discovery. And her enthusiasm was contagious enough to
attract a crowd.
John 4:35
Jesus obviously had His eyes opened to the Spiritual hunger of those
around Him, for example, the Samaritan woman and the crowds who came out to see
Him. If the disciples would be sensitive
to Spiritual things, they would see the Spiritual hunger in those around them
as well. It even seems that Nicodemus
had a Spiritual hunger. Sadly, this
problem still exists within the Church today.
Sometimes the Church is long on judging someone a sinner and short on
offering grace. Jesus could have spent
time condemning this Samaritan woman (as I’m sure the disciples would), but
instead He offered her Spiritual food.
Perhaps the Church needs to wake up as well, and look to the world with
Spiritual eyes and a sensitive heart.
John 4:39-42
Samaritans believe that Jesus is the Messiah. Amazing, isn’t it? These were the descendants of Israel (the
Northern 10 tribes) who turned from the worship of God back in the days or
Jeroboam (1 Kings 12:25-33). These were
the people who had intermarried with the Assyrians who had been moved into the
land after their conquest.
John 4:43-45
Jesus now returns to Galilee, putting this portion of John alongside
what we read in Matthew 4:17 or Luke 4:14.
John 4:46-54
This government official was possibly Jewish, not Roman, because Jesus
included him in the group who would not believe unless a sign and wonder was
given. Perhaps he served in Herod’s (Antipas)
Palace. It’s also clear that this is a
different event than what is recorded in Matthew 8:5-10. There is no rebuke from Jesus in that
account. This makes you wonder why Jesus
spoke so harshly to this man. Well,
perhaps it was not directed at the man, maybe it was directed to those living
in the area. Or maybe He could see what
was in the man’s heart and spoke to the absence of faith. If we contrast this story with the incident
in Samaria, this man was looking for proof while the woman at the well believed
merely by His testimony. Either way, it
is clear the man’s faith in Jesus was awakened by this incident because not
only did he believe, but so did his whole household. The Seventh Hour would have been either 7 pm
according to Roman Time or 1 pm according to Jewish Time.
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