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John 3 1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him." 3 In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." 4 "How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!" 5 Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, `You must be born again.' 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." 9 "How can this be?" Nicodemus asked. 10 "You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things? 11I 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. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven--the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. 16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
20/3/11 Lent 2 year A : John 3:1-17
Why do you think Nicodemus came to Jesus at night?
Nicodemus was a Jewish religious leader and did not want to be seen with Jesus in case he was seen to represent the leadership or in case his fellow leaders who disliked Jesus heard. The night also represents the darkness of his understanding about God. Jesus gave him a lesson in theology, the things of God.
Why do you think Nicodemus came at all? Verse 2 Jesus' teaching and miracles. Also work of the Holy Spirit?
Nicodemus tries to flatter Jesus. v.2. "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him."
Jesus could have said, "Thank you very much" and wallowed in this, apparent praise. But he doesn't. He pulls no punches. 3 In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."
Nicodemus was so taken aback that he thought of the physical. As an old person, verse 4, how could he be physically born again? The words translated "born again" are literally "born from above". So it is actually quite clear where this new birth is coming from.
Nicodemus was confused by Jesus' words. Jesus is talking in spiritual terms about the need to make a new start with God. Not relying upon ourselves but depending totally upon God and the work of His Holy Spirit.
The implications of Jesus' words for Nicodemus were staggering. All of his life he had diligently observed the law and the rituals of Judaism. He had joined the ultra-religious Pharisees, and even become a member of the ruling body, the Sanhedrin. Perhaps he thought that Jesus would tell him something else he needed to do to add to his efforts. But Jesus called him to forsake everything and start again; to abandon the entire system of works righteousness in which he had placed his hope; to realise that human effort was powerless to put him right with God.
The power behind this new birth is God the Holy Spirit. He opens the eyes of the spiritually blind. He convicts people of their sin and their need of someone to save them from the consequences of their sin. He gives the free, undeserved gift of trust in God. He gives fruit to make God's people more like Jesus. He gives spiritual gifts so believers can serve God and advance his kingdom.
God, the Holy Spirit gives new life, or new birth.
It involves dying to our old life, of failing to love God and other people all of the time.
It involves realizing that Jesus died in our place on the cross to receive the punishment for our sins on the cross.
It involves realizing that he rose from the dead and He shares his life with his followers.
Followers of Jesus united in his death, resurrection and ascension. When someone trusts in Jesus they receive the Holy Spirit.
When the wind starts to blow you may go around your home, shutting doors and windows to prevent it from disturbing things.
Jesus said the Holy Spirit is like a wind. What are we to do? Shut Him out so He doesn't disturb things too much? Or throw open the windows and doors of our lives to welcome Him in?...
The source or focus of this new birth is Jesus himself, vs. 14-17. Looking to the physical he looks back to the Old Testament, something Nicodemus would have been very familiar with. God's people had been moaning following their deliverance from Egypt. God sent venomous snakes in judgment. They repented and asked Moses to pray for them. Numbers 21:8 "The LORD said to Moses, 'Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.' 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived." The Israelites were saved from physical death by looking up to snake lifted up on a pole.
Those who want to come into God's kingdom, to be under his rule and with him forever, need to look up to a saviour, lifted up on a cross. Jesus.
16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
God loves you and me. He has created people to glorify Him and to enjoy fellowship with him forever. However, people go their own way and reject God's rule, which spoils their relationship with Him. Jesus showed us how to live. He also gave himself on the cross, receiving the punishment of people for their sins.
"whoever believes in him" the Greek for believe, pisteuo means to trust. It is not talking about an intellectual belief in the existence of another but putting one's life under the control of Christ. In verse 5 Jesus talked about entering the kingdom of God. If we want to enter into the place where God's rules as King we have to trust in Jesus and obey his teaching.
Jesus was, and is not looking for those who were spiritually content, for half-hearted measures, a shallow commitment. His ministry illustrates this.
He confronted the very respectable, moral, rich young ruler with the challenge that he had to give up his wealth, which had become his god Mth. 19.22.
As a result of Christ's uncompromising demand for total commitment, "From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him" (John 6:66).
He repeatedly warned His followers of the danger of fake faith, even on the part of those who ministered in His name: "Not everyone who says to me, `Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, `Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23 Then I will tell them plainly, `I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'." (Matt. 7:21–23)
Jesus also explained that being His disciple meant dying to self, declaring, "Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it." (Luke 9:23). Such a high cost was often too much for would-be disciples:
Clearly, an emphasis on abandoning self and submitting to Him permeated Jesus' evangelistic approach, both in His public ministry and in His private conversations.
Which leaves us with a question? Are you born again or, better, born from above. Have you abandoned all self-reliance, all living life by a moral or religious code to come to Jesus?
Verse 18, which follows today's gospel; "Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son."
Do you trust in Jesus so you are saved? Or have you yet to trust in Jesus so you are condemned for your sins? If the latter you can come into God's kingdom, acknowledging your sin and trusting in Jesus' death for you on the cross.
I can tell you the date I was born from above. 23rd July 1978. About two thirds of Christians cannot, it is a more gradual birth for them. A prolonged labour, if you like! It doesn't matter how but it does need to place. So, if you have yet to be born from above, why not make your spiritual birthday 20th March 2011?
Today, let us be open to God's Spirit. To let Him blow through our lives. To bring new life to those who are outside God's kingdom. To reinvigorate those who have been born from above. To fill us so we can know the fruit of the Spirit and become more like Jesus....
11/6/06 year B Trinity Sunday : John 3:1-17
"You should be ashamed," the father told his son, "When Abraham Lincoln was your age, he used to walk ten miles every day to get to school."
"Really?" the son retorted. "Well when he was your age, he was president."
Have you ever done anything in secret, perhaps something that you are ashamed of? Nicodemus was a Jewish religious leader and did not want to be seen with Jesus so he came secretly at night. The night also represents the darkness of his understanding about God. Jesus gave him a lesson in theology, the things of God.
Nicodemus has an inadequate view of Jesus. He refers to him as a rabbi or teacher. He looks to Jesus' miracles as a sign of God's approval. However, he does not acknowledge that Jesus is a prophet, a spokesman from God, or The Messiah.
Jesus redirects him from miraculous signs to the sign of the cross. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
The Israelites who had been bitten by snakes were saved from physical death by looking up to the bronze snake on a pole.
Jesus, the Son of Man, would soon be lifted up on the cross. All who look up to him, who understand what he was doing and trust in Him, will be saved from spiritual death, which is separation from God. They will be saved to eternal life, which is unity with God, now and into eternity.
Nicodemus would have been familiar with the idea that God loved Israel, but the idea that He loved the world would have been shocking to Him.
God thought that the world was good when he created it, but after Adam and Eve went against His will, the world is usually portrayed as being hostile to God and deserving wrath, not love. So the love is not about the object of the love, but about the loving nature of God. God showed His love by, in His Son, becoming a man and saving the world, verse 17. That salvation is only for those who trust, or believe, in Jesus, verse 16.
The belief or trust in Jesus is brought about by the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is compared to the wind, verse 8.
It is unpredictable. Remember the winds of 1987!
The wind cannot be seen. It can be heard and felt. It can be powerful and you can see its effects.
God's Spirit is unpredictable, powerful, unseen, although we can see the effect He has on people.
Jesus said to Nicodemus that he and everyone must be born again or, literally, born from above. This is about making a new start with God though the death and resurrection of Jesus inspired by a trust given by the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit gives new life, or new birth.
It involves dying to our old life, of failing to love God and other people all of the time.
It involves realizing that Jesus died in our place on the cross to receive the punishment for our sins on the cross.
It involves realizing that he rose from the dead and He shares his life with his followers.
Followers of Jesus united in his death, resurrection and ascension. When someone trusts in Jesus they receive the Holy Spirit.
When the wind starts to blow you may go around your home, shutting doors and windows to prevent it from disturbing things.
Jesus said the Holy Spirit is like a wind. What are we to do? Shut Him out so He doesn't disturb things too much? Or throw open the windows and doors of our lives to welcome Him in?...
How many people here fully understand how a car works, the engine, gearbox, suspension, cooling system, air conditioning, ignition, fuel injection and the electrical system? Does this stop anyone from driving or being driven in a car?
Today is Trinity Sunday. This passage features God the father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. As Christians we cannot know and understand everything about the Trinity. God is vast and beyond our understanding. What is important is that we know and relate to God the Father, through God the Son, by the work of God the Spirit.
What is important is that we grow in that love, knowledge and devotion of God.
15/6/03 Trinity Sunday : John 3:1-15
PRAY
3 1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him." 3 In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." 4 "How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!" 5 Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, `You must be born again.' 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." 9 "How can this be?" Nicodemus asked. 10 "You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things? 11I 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. 12I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven--the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
PRAY
Many of you will know that my family comes from Norwich in the East of England. A young visitor came to church in the nearby East Coast resort of Great Yarmouth. After the service she was asked what she thought of the service. She said that she couldn't understand why there was no mention of the West Coast in the service. When she was asked what she meant she said, "Well, they kept saying 'In the name of the Father, the Son and the whole East Coast' "
Today's reading contains references to all 3 members of the Trinity, & today is Trinity Sunday. 1 week after Pentecost.
Probably the mention of the name 'Trinity' fills us with confusion and trepidation.
Christian Theology in Plain Language: "Within his own mysterious being God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The designations are just ways in which God is God. Within the Godhead there are three "persons" who are neither three Gods nor three parts of God, but coequally and coeternally God."
Firstly we will look at how the Trinity involves revelation and redemption.
Jesus talks to Nicodemas of the need to be born again of water and the Spirit. The water represents repentance, the desire to make a new start with God by turning away from sin and turning to a life lived according to God's wishes. Only the Spirit can give this new life starting with genuine repentance followed by the power to follow God's perfect will.
Jesus also talks of his own death, being lifted up, and the need for people to trust in him and, by implication, his death and resurrection . Someone suggested that Jesus and the Holy Spirit were the two arms reaching out from God the Father.
All this springs from the nature of God. God wants to reveal himself to humankind as a God of truth and love. He did this from the beginning of human history and was rejected by Adam. He revealed himself to Abraham, Moses and the Israelites. This is in the Old Testament. Although we do see glimpses of the Spirit and, perhaps the Son in the O.T. it is mainly concerned with the revelation of God the Father.
In the New Testament we read first of all of the revelation of God through God the Son, Jesus. Jesus showed us what God is like. Loving, reaching out to those in need, perfect, humble - not concerned with status, putting others interests before his own, ultimately on the cross.
Then God the Holy Spirit came upon the first disciples. He convicts people of sin, He reveals the significance of what Jesus has done, He enables people to respond, enables people to follow God's ways, to become more like Jesus, and He gives at least one gift to every Christian to build up the church.
We should not get bogged down in what each person of the Godhead does because they are all working together in each and every situation. It has been suggested that the revealer is God the Holy Spirit; the revelation is God the Son, Jesus; the one revealed is God the Father.
God chooses people to reveal himself to and to be reconciled with. He does this through Jesus by the work of the Holy Spirit.
So the Trinity is about revelation and redemption.
It is also about relationship.
In Jesus day you were identified through your family relationships. James and John were known as the sons of Zebedee, Luke 5:10. In Hebrew 'ben' means 'son of'. So James was known as James ben Zebedee. So my son would be called Joshua ben Jim !
We have fellowship with God through trusting Jesus, which is itself the work of the Holy Spirit within us.
There are two sides to this.
Fellowship within believers. God lives in every believer by His Spirit. Therefore every believer is united. Not by race, colour, age, sex, religious ritual, or statement of belief. But by the sin-convicting, repentance-bringing, life-giving, fruit-bearing, gift-providing, obedience-producing Spirit.
It is He who unites us. When we fall out, when we sin against another Christian by gossiping about them, by judging them, and by not helping them we are grieving God the Holy Spirit.
His Spirit unites us. When we are disunited this wounds God,
Fellowship with God. God's Spirit also unites us with Him, through Jesus. Through the work of the Spirit we become children of God. Co-heirs with Christ. The N.T. describes Christians as being 'in Christ'. 2 Cor. 5:17, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come
Do you believe that you are 'in Christ' today ?
Christ has always been part of the Trinity. From before he became a man, when he became a man, and since His resurrection and ascension. He, and the Holy Spirit have always been and will always be part of the Godhead.
If we are 'in Christ' we are united with Him and, therefore, in a sense, we are also part of the Trinity !
Just as Jesus loved and obeyed God the Father so, by being united with God we can follow his ways in love.
You see once you move from the idea that the Trinity provides compartments into which we can neatly put different parts of God, to the understanding that it is about relationship then this frees us to understand God better.
It frees us from the difficulty of trying to understand God, which is impossible anyway because He is beyond our understanding.
Sometimes people will say that someone they know has been brought out of themselves through, say the love of a partner.
You could say that God's love for humankind has brought him out of himself .
If we look at salvation history we can see how through God's love for humankind that He reveals himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
There is a danger of concentrating on the relationships within the Trinity without seeing God's fellowship with humankind for which God emerges out of himself.
It is through that fellowship that we can have with God that we can know Him better and that we can be drawn into the Trinity through our unity with Jesus through the work of the Spirit that gives us a right relationship with God.
How many people here fully understand how a car works, the engine, gearbox, suspension, cooling system, air conditioning, ignition and the rest of the electrical system? Does this stop anyone from driving or being driven in a car? As Christians we don't know and don't have to understand everything about the Trinity. What is important is that we know and relate to God the Father through God the Son by the work of God the Spirit. What is important is that we grow in that love, knowledge and devotion of God.
PRAY