For God so loved

Context: Nicodemus the Pharisee (John 3:1-3, Acts 26:4-5)

• Nicodemus:
  • Pharisee: Strictest sect of Jews – according to Paul
    • Tithe mint dill and cumin. Apparently there are 700+ such rules.
  • Ruler of the Jews
• Confession:
  • We (the Pharisees) know that you are a teacher come from God
  • How do they know? No one can do these signs, unless God was with him
    • John 2:23 “believed … observing … signs which he did”

How can one be born again? (John 3:4-8)

• Not what Nicodemus is thinking about – the natural birth: born of flesh
• Born of the Spirit
  • Felt but not seen – just like the wind
  • Born of the water – to follow being born of the Spirit
    • Baptism: Buried and raised with Jesus, through faith in God
  • Born “anew”
    • Word not only means again but could mean “from above”

How can one be born in the Spirit? (John 3:9-15)

• Believing the testimony of the one who has seen, Jesus:
  • This is just an earthly thing –
    • Jesus is the only one who came down from heaven
      • No one else has gone to heaven and come back
• Moses and the serpent
  • When Israel spoke against God and sinned
    • Complaining there is no bread and water
      • And their soul intensely disliked the Manna 
  • God sent venomous serpents – many got bit and died
  • When Moses prayed for the people as requested by them
    • God gave them a way out
      • Look at a snake that’s set on a pole
        • Everyone who sees it – will live
• Likewise – Jesus
  • When he is lifted up on the cross
    • Made to be sin, on our behalf (Isaiah 53)
  • Whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life

Why did God send His only Son Jesus? (John 3:16-18)

• God loved the world, that is us the humans, so much
  • That He gave His one and only Son, Jesus, so that
    • Whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life
• God didn’t send Jesus to judge the world – but to save – this is the first coming
  • But those who don’t believe in Jesus, are already judged
  • Romans 10:9 confess Jesus is Lord & believe God raised him from the dead

Conclusion / Application

• Isaiah 53:1 “Who has believed our message?” Do we?

Main Passage John 3:4-18 – World English Bible (WEB)

4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?”

5 Jesus answered, “Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he can’t enter into God’s Kingdom. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Don’t marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born anew.’ 8 The wind[a] blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but don’t know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

9 Nicodemus answered him, “How can these things be?”

10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and don’t understand these things? 11 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. 12 If I told you earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven. 14 As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him. 18 He who believes in him is not judged. He who doesn’t believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.

Footnotes

1. 3:8 The same Greek word (πνεῦμα) means wind, breath, and spirit.

Notes / Cross References

John 3:1-3 3 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 The same came to him by night, and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him.”

3 Jesus answered him, “Most certainly, I tell you, unless one is born anew, [a] he can’t see God’s Kingdom.”

Footnotes

1. 3:3 The word translated “anew” here and in John 3:7 (ἄνωθεν) also means “again” and “from above”.

Matthew 5:20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, there is no way you will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Matthew 23:23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. But you ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone.

Acts 23:8 For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess all of these.

Acts 26:4-5 4 “Indeed, all the Jews know my way of life from my youth up, which was from the beginning among my own nation and at Jerusalem; 5 having known me from the first, if they are willing to testify, that after the strictest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.

Colossians 2:12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

Numbers 21:5-9 5 The people spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, there is no water, and our soul loathes this disgusting food!”

6 Yahweh sent venomous snakes among the people, and they bit the people. Many people of Israel died. 7 The people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against Yahweh and against you. Pray to Yahweh, that he take away the serpents from us.” Moses prayed for the people.

8 Yahweh said to Moses, “Make a venomous snake, and set it on a pole. It shall happen that everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” 9 Moses made a serpent of bronze, and set it on the pole. If a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked at the serpent of bronze, he lived.

2 Corinthians 5:21 For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

John 12:32-33 32 And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 But he said this, signifying by what kind of death he should die.