“SOMETHING YOU MUST DO.” JOHN 3: 1-8, 13-18.
JOHN 3: 1-3, 4-5, 6-8, 13-15.
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO JOHN 3.
This lesson is the “evangelism lesson for the winter quarter. The “Life Question” is, “Do I have to believe in Jesus to go to heaven?
The “Biblical Truth” is that everyone must be “born again” to go to heaven, and no one can be born again without believing in Jesus.
Many people want to be religious in their own way. They see no need to be born against through faith in Jesus Christ.
Many believe that dong more good things than bad things will get them into heaven. One man with whom I visited said he intended to go to heaven but he would do it his way.
An elderly Indian lady said she would go to heaven the old Indian way.
Sometimes we speak of “born-again Christians.” In a sense the words “born-again” are redundant, because the New Testament definition of a Christian assumes that a person is born again. Unfortunately, some professing Christians know nothing of being born again. They seem to have missed the biblical account of Jesus and Nicodemus, in which Jesus emphasized the necessity for the new birth if one is to go to heaven.
PLEASE READ JOHN 3: 1-3.
Nicodemus, John informed us, was a man of the Pharisees. This group was known for their religious life. The Pharisees comprised the largest and most influential Jewish religious group during the N.T. period. The meaning of the name Pharisee---to be separate”---accurately characterizes this group’s practice of devotion to God.
They separated themselves from some things: (1) from any practice or belief that smacked of pagan religions and (2) from close affiliation with “common” Jewish people whom they considered to be sinners because those people did not live by the Pharisees’ standards and traditions. They took their religion seriously, and they had a good reputation among the people.
The Pharisees also separated themselves unto something: the study, interpretation, and teaching of the Torah or Mosaic Law as well as the complex web of rabbinic oral traditions. The Pharisees believe the only way to God was through strict obedience to the law.
We learn that this pious Pharisee, Nicodemus, was also a ruler of the Jews. He was a member of the Sanhedrin, the ruling Jewish council, with it’s headquarters in Jerusalem.
Presided over by the high priest, this council had 71 members that included not only Pharisees but also men of another influential group, the Sadducees. Under tight Roman control the Sadducees held a degree of political authority as well as the religious authority they shared with the Pharisees. The Sanhedrin eventually condemned Jesus to death and gave Him over to Pilate for execution.
Nicodemus came to Jesus by night. Bible students speculate why the time is mentioned. Some feel that the night was the only time these two could talk together because of busy schedules.
Some think that Nicodemus came at night so the enemies of Jesus could not accuse him. Still others think that night signifies moral and spiritual darkness that Jesus came to defeat.
Nicodemus came to Jesus with a sincere desire to know more about Him and His ministry.
Nicodemus opened the interview with what he considered a polite compliment. He used the plural we to indicate that he was not alone in his feelings about Jesus. He called Jesus Rabbi, which was used of a respected teacher and leader, and means “my great one.”
In his words to Jesus, Nicodemus said that Jesus was not an ordinary teacher, but one sent from God. The reason that Nicodemus believed God had sent Jesus was because no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Miracles, translates John’s usual word for “signs.” Nicodemus thus was expressing a view of Jesus that seemed open and friendly.
However, just recognizing Jesus as a great teacher of Scripture was not enough to get Nicodemus into God’s kingdom. Jesus came for a much greater purpose---to seek and save the lost.
The signs Jesus performed convinced Nicodemus that God must be with Jesus. Jesus had turned water into wine at a wedding in Cana in John 2: 1-11 and had performed other signs among the people that John did not record.
Signs were miraculous acts, but their purpose was not merely to dazzle people. These acts always pointed to some crucial truth about God and His redemptive plan for sinners.
At this point Nicodemus’s soul-searching, however, the signs meant only that Jesus was a great teacher sent by God. He came to Jesus but did not recognize that Jesus was God in flesh, the Messiah for whom Israel was looking.
As a Pharisee, Nicodemus viewed salvation as something earned by keeping the law, so he did not think Jesus had any relevance to his spiritual condition. Nothing could be worse for a persons’ soul than (1) to think he can earn his way to heaven, or (2) to relegate Jesus to merely a good teacher. The two often go hand in hand, and Nicodemus was guilty of both.
Nicodemus must have been shocked by the abrupt way Jesus answered him. Jesus cut through the typical formalities of a friendly discussion. He went right to the heart of the issue. Jesus spoke to him about the necessity of being born again.
Jesus’ answer began with the words He used to signal a very important pronouncement: Verily, verily, I say unto thee. Jesus’ message was except or unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Keep in mind the kind of person to whom Jesus said these words. He was a prominent person, a religious and moral man. We might consider such words as appropriate for someone like the Samarian woman to whom Jesus spoke in John 4.
But Jesus said it to a man like Nicodemus. Everyone is a sinner in God’s sight. Everyone needs to be born again. Unless people are born again, they remain lost. They cannot plead their prominence among human society, a righteous life, or a religious background. If they want to know God, they need a new birth.
The verb see in this verse carries a deeper meaning than merely to observe something. It means “to experience, encounter, and participate in at the end of the age.” One who cannot see the kingdom of God will not participate in the new birth God offers.
Kingdom of God refers to God’s beneficent rule experienced in a believer’s life, and in John’s Gospel the phrase probably should be considered synonymous with the term eternal life.
A person cannot be saved merely by affirming a particular religion’s doctrines and traditions. Doing good works may be a commendable lifestyle, but performing such actions can never bring about what sinners need, a new birth. To receive eternal life, a person must be born again.
PLEASE READ JOHN 3: 4-5.
In vs. 4 Nicodemus asked Jesus to explain how a person is born again. Nicodemus did not understand. He thought Jesus was referring to physical birth. Yet the idea, of a man being born when he is old, or entering the womb a second time seemed impossible.
The grammatical structure in vs. 4b is such that it infers Nicodemus anticipated a negative answer. His questions, though, opened the door for Jesus to explain being born again in a spiritual rebirth by which a person enters a new life in God’s kingdom.
The question can b e translated, “A man can’t enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born, can he?” Was Nicodemus actually thinking that Jesus was referring to a second physical birth? Or was he simply confused and this was his way of asking Jesus to clarify what He meant in vs. 3?
A third possibility is that Nicodemus recognized that Jesus was saying that a person can begin a totally new life. He was skeptical about this, so he asked how such a miracle could happen.
In vs. 5 Jesus repeated what He said in vs. 3, but with three additions: the words of water, the words and of the spirit, and the substitution of enter for see. Let’s look first a the words see and enter.
Most Bible students feel the words mean the same thing. If there is any difference, see refers to one’s awareness before actually entering.
Vs. 5 is the first mention of the Spirit’s role, which Jesus emphasized in vs. 6-8. The most difficult words to understand refer to water. There are several explanations offered.
One popular explanation looks back to the reference to physical birth in vs. 4 and looks ahead to the contrast between flesh and spirit in vs. 6.
Jesus may have been contrasting physical birth and spiritual birth. The water stands for the water in physical birth and the Spirit stands for the Spirit who makes possible spiritual birth. In other words in order to be alive, people must be born physically, likewise, in order to be alive spiritually, they must be born of the Spirit.
Not surprisingly, some people consider the water to be the water of Christian baptism. In other words, they believe that water baptism is essential for people to be born again. This interpretation is usually put together with some other Bible verses to build a doctrine of baptismal regeneration. But this is the only mention of water in the passage. Vs. 3 and 7 speak of the new birth without any reference to baptism.
Another explanation of water in vs. 5 is that in the Bible water often is used to signify new life in the Spirit. Ezekiel 36: 25-27 tells of a new heart in the same passage with a reference to water.
In John 4: 13-14 Jesus, at the Feast of Tabernacles, referred to water as symbolic of new life. In John 7: 37-39 Jesus spoke of the Spirit as the living water. In other words the reference to water in John 3: 5 signifies the new life in the Spirit.
In John 7: 37-39 Jesus cried out to everyone to come to Him and drink from the “living water” which John identified as the Holy Spirit. Therefore, water is simply Jesus’ symbol for the Spirit, which is the agent of the new birth.
The first and third explanations may be the meaning of vs. 5: the second is contradictory to what the Bible as a whole teaches. My preference is the first interpretation. It blends right in with vs. 6.
PLEASE READ JOHN 3: 6-8.
Sometimes people say, “If I just had my life to live over, I wouldn’t make the same mistakes.” That might be so, but they would still be people of flesh, not people of the Spirit. God makes life anew in our present lives. This is made possible by the work of His Spirit.
In passages such as this, flesh refers to our earthly life, which lives out of physical resources. Sometimes flesh is used to refer to life without the presence of God’s Spirit. All of us are people of flesh: we become spiritually alive only as we open our lives to the Spirit. This is one reason some prefer to call being born again being born from above.
When we use the words born again, we need to realize that it is not a rebirth into physical life but into spiritual life. A whole new world is opened up for one who is born of the Spirit. That is what Jesus meant when He said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
Vs. 7 repeats the emphasis on the necessity of the new birth from vs. 3. The repetition strengthens the importance of the statement, “Ye must be born again.”
Nicodemus was amazed at Jesus’ teaching about the necessity of the new birth. Although Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus, He used a second person plural pronoun when He said you must be born again. Jesus included Nicodemus, his fellow Pharisees and Sadducees on the Sanhedrin, all other Jewish men and women, and indeed all humanity.
The necessity of the new birth is underscored in the verb must, which translates a Greek word that means, “it is necessary.”
Nicodemus could not get to heaven by doing good works, by counting on his heritage as a descendant of Abraham, or by trusting in his personal merits. He needed a spiritual birth.
But Nicodemus was dumfounded. If Jesus was correct, then all of Nicodemus’s religious training and attempts to earn salvation by keeping the law were worthless. Indeed, that is exactly what Jesus wanted Nicodemus to learn.
In vs. 8 Jesus offered an analogy to try and clarify the work of the Spirit in the new birth. Jesus compared the work of the Spirit to the work of the wind. In Greek the words wind and spirit are the same. The word can mean spirit, wind or breath. So vs. 8 could be “the Spirit blows where He will.”
In what ways is the Spirit’s work like the wind’s blowing? Both are invisible to us, but we can feel and see the effects of each. Both are beyond the control of human beings. They are powerful forces that have noticeable effects.
The wind can gently move a sailboat or it can be a deadly storm. The Spirit’s work is beyond our power and control. We can ignore it to our peril or allow it to do its work. One big difference between wind and the Spirit is that we can yield to the Spirit and receive new life.
We refer to the teaching about the new birth as regeneration. As we have seen, regeneration is not the same as reincarnation: it also is not the same as reformation. That is, we are not able to reform our lives and do better. People can make some changes for the better, but they need the new birth of the Spirit to be truly transformed.
PLEASE READ JOHN 3: 13-15.
Later in His ministry, Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.” Why is Jesus the only way to God? Many people believe that there are many ways to heaven or to God; however, all their ways are like the people of Babel who tried to build a tower up to heaven. It is impossible for humans to follow their own roads up to God. The problem is that none of these roads get there. No man hath ascended up to heaven.
The only way to God is by the hand of God’s grace reaching down for us. This took place when God sent His Son to open access to God for guilty sinners. This is the way described in the last part of vs. 13. God opened the way through Jesus, who came down from heaven. God opened the way through Jesus who came down from heaven. Jesus often used the title Son of man to describe His mission, which led Him to the cross.
Vs. 14 recalls the biblical account found in Numbers 21:4-9, the story of the serpent in the wilderness. The people of Israel had committed serious sin against the Lord. The people complained against God and Moses, lamenting that they had been delivered from Egypt.
As punishment, the Lord sent deadly snakes among the sinners. Many people died. Finally the survivors confessed their sins and asked Moses to help them. Moses prayed, and the Lord told him to make a brass snake, put it on a pole, and hold it up. He told the people that whoever looked to this symbol of God’s grace and power would live. Many looked and lived.
The new birth would not be possible without the death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus provided atonement for our sins and defeated death.
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up. The purpose was so that “whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
The Israelites in the wilderness looked in faith to the serpent of brass, and those who looked lived. Those who look to the crucified, risen Lord live, not just for a little longer on earth but they receive eternal life.
This is life in contrast to death or to mere existence. It begins with the new birth and it never ends. The alternative to this life is death. Believing in Jesus is a life and death issue, not something to take lightly. And this eternal life is open to all who believe. The word whosoever opens the way for anyone to come.
The importance of believing is crucial, and this word is often misunderstood. Too many think of it only as believing certain facts to be true. Our language has no verb for the noun faith. Thus translators fall back on the word believe. The noun that goes with believe is belief.
In general usage the words believe and belief refer to acceptance of some factual statement to be true. Countless numbers of people have this kind of faith. They believe in God, in Jesus, and in the Bible; but they have not trusted Jesus as their personal Savior. Only that kind of trust and commitment is saving faith.
Being born again means being one of many children of God. This was spelled out in John 1: 12-13. “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: which were born, not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
PLEASE READ JOHN 3: 16-18.
John 3: 16 is probably the best known verse in the Bible, and with good reason. It is both simple and profound. The author of our lesson commentary said, “When I write about this verse, I recall what two of my seminary professors said about it. One said he never preached on it because he felt that he couldn’t do it justice. The other said there is enough gospel in this one verse to save the world.
When I became a pastor, for a while I followed the first professor’s advice. Then I realized that while no preacher, teacher, or writer could do justice to this great verse, God could use our inadequate words to highlight this powerful verse.”
The truths in this verse are the gospel message in a nutshell: God’s love provided salvation for the world through the gift and sacrifice of His son, but salvation comes only to those who believe in Christ.
The verse mentions the vital truths of the good news. It begins with a clear affirmation that God loves you, me and everyone in this sinful world. What a difference this revelation would make if people truly believed in this kind of God.
Too many do not believe that there is a God who loves them. Even some who believe it have not experienced God’s love for themselves. The Bible in Ps. 34: 8 invites each one to “taste and see that the LORD is good.”
God is a big God. His love includes the whole world. Also His love is not selfish but self-giving: God so love the world, that he gave his only begotten (“One and Only,”) Son.
The last part of vs. 16 repeats vs. 15, which emphasizes its importance.
Everlasting is the same word as eternal in vs. 15. Vs. 17 gives the purpose of Christ’s coming: “God did not send His Son into the world that He might condemn the world.” Some people believe that God takes delight in condemning sinners, but He does not.
Many more believe that God just doesn’t care. But according to 2 Peter 3: 9 God is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
Why then does He not save everyone? People must choose to come to Christ. God will not force anyone to enter His kingdom.
Positively,
God’s purpose in sending His Son was that he world through him
might be saved
What must one do to be saved? That person must
believe on Jesus, trusting in His sacrificial death on the cross.
What happens when one believes in Jesus as Savior? That person receives eternal life. God does not want anyone to perish. He wants all to believe in Jesus and have eternal life. Vs. 17 speaks to the erroneous attitude some people have toward God. They believe He is like a stern judge and delights in condemning people to hell.
Some people sentimentally ask how a loving God could ever send any person to hell? God is holy, and He will not act as though our sin is but a minor problem. Sin will destroy us eternally if it is not forgiven and removed.
Yet God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world. Rather God sent Jesus into the world that people might be saved through faith in Him.
Jesus said that apart from believing in Him, people are already condemned because of their evil deeds, their love of darkness rather than light, and their unwillingness to come to the light.
When Jesus came, according to John 1: 1-10, His creation was ignorant of Him and His own people rejected Him. Jesus warned that those who do not believe in Him will remain condemned in God’s sight.
Jesus pointed out two destines: believe in Him and have eternal life, or reject Him and remain condemned eternally. God wants everyone to believe in Jesus. Also, He wants all who have experienced the new birth to tell others of God’s offer of eternal life in Christ.
As long as a sinner refuses to believe he is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
VS. 19-21 explain how this works in terms of light and darkness. All people without Christ walk in darkness. Those who come to Christ allow God to expose their darkness when they come to the light. Those who love darkness show it by retreating further into the darkness.
Do you believe that Nicodemus came to the light? As we noticed earlier, some Bible students think that he came at night because he was in darkness.
Nicodemus came at night, but he did come. He listened and asked questions. Whatever his motives were that night, we know that his later actions show that he became a believer. And he and Joseph of Arimathea, in John 19: 38-42, helped prepare Jesus body for burial, an act of courage and devotion.
Have you experienced the new birth? If you haven’t, will you receive Jesus now?
If you have experienced the new birth, how well are you sharing the good news with others?
NEXT SUNDAY, FEB. 18, 2007 THE LIFE QUESTION FROM JOHN 5: 16-47 IS “WHY CAN’T IBVELIEVED IN GOD WITHOUT ACCEPTING JESUS AS HIS SON?”
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