Bible Studies

Chapter Three of John

by Lawrence Walkup 
11/01/14
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CHAPTER THREE OF JOHN

By

Lawrence Walkup

Verses 1-3: Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night because he is unsure. Just in case Jesus is not who he could be, Nicodemus can go back to being a Pharisee and nobody will be any the wiser. Nobody has to know that he came to see him. Nicodemus uses the word 'we' to lessen the focus being on himself. He attempts to butter Jesus up with compliments just like a seasoned politician would. One thing that religious leaders and politicians have in common is that they are both slick. Jesus knowing the heart of Nicodemus, and not addressing any of the phony issues...immediately addresses Nicodemus' issue. Jesus cuts through all the nonsense and tells him exactly what he needs to do in order to be sure. "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." 'Nicodemus, if you want to be sure that I am your promised Messiah; if you want to be sure that I am God in the flesh, sent from God, to do the work of God; if you want to be able to perceive and understand the spiritual, then you must be born of the Spirit.'

Verses 4-8: Being born again is fundamental to being a Christian, and yet Jesus is addressing this fundamental issue first to a religious person. That in itself should speak volumes. The religious are more blind than the pagan, which makes all the sense in the world. 'Yes Nicodemus it is true; in order to enter into the spiritual and be born of the Spirit, you first have to be born into the physical. The physical body will take on God's Spirit. You should not be surprised, but you are. You're surprised becasue that's how far off track Israel has gotten away from God.' Just like we don't know the origin and the destination of the wind, we also don't know who God will save. We don't have the ability to see human hearts in their deepest realms. There is no such thing as profiling a Christian. Some may think they can, but those characteristics and traits will also end up being found in unbelievers.

Verses 9-15: Nicodemus is still having a hard time seeing the spiritual; and he always will until he becomes spiritual. Again Jesus reiterates on how far Israel has fallen away from God, when even Israel's leadership can't understand these things of God. Unlike Nicodemus, Jesus speaks of what he is sure of, and speaks to what he has seen. When Jesus says I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; could he be referring to his speaking to Israel in the Old Testament laying out the prophecies of himself being fulfilled at this time? 'You must know your scriptures to some degree. Look at the recording of the geneology that leads to me. These are earthly things that you can see that prove I'm the Messiah. But you don't even believe these earthly things, so you're certainly not going to believe the heavenly things' (spiritual, invisible things).

Whenever Jesus (because he is God) speaks of an incident in the Old Testament, which he does many times in the Gospels, he is validating the Old Testament as the Word of God. Those stories weren't mere mythological fables, but historical events that actually happened thousands of years ago. This particular event happened about fifteen hundred years ago from Jesus' time. We can't even relate to one hundred years ago, let alone to one thousand years ago. One thing that keeps the unbeliever steeped in his unbelief is his inabilitiy to grasp the concept of how God deals with man in large amounts of time periods. We can even go back further than that (about 4000 yrs. from Jesus' time) when Jesus talks about Adam and Eve in Matt. 19:4. In this one statement Jesus completely destroys the theory of Evolution. Therefore, 75% of the world believes, either Jesus is a liar, or he a mere man, is misinformed. I don't believe the number is this high but you will never hear any different because the media has an agenda to promote. The function of the snake on the pole for the Israelites then, was a type and shadow of the function of Jesus on the cross for us today. The snake represents Satan being judged and condemned by Jesus' death. We live because we put our faith in that act. The israelites that were bitten, lived because they looked at the snake on the pole.

Verse 16: God is not going to give anymore to mankind than what he has given us already in his Son. The extent of the limit of his giving has been reached. He doesn't need to give any more because everything is met in the giving of Christ. The issue now for mankind is that the ball is in his court. It's up to him to respond to what God has done. The correct response is to believe in the Son...and then moving on from there as you should...to discover the significance of the giving of the Son. I use the word discover because there is still so much to be dicovered that still hasn't been discovered. And I'm not talking about unbelievers, but about Christians who still haven't yet discovered what is plainly laying there in the Word. 11 Pet. 1:3 says: 'His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.' I suppose many Christians have read this, but then why do they live a life that doesn't believe this. I think the word 'everything' means everything. Just in the area of praying, think of all the things that Christians pray for...concerning themselves...and yet never come to realize that they already possess those things. The supreme example of that is always praying for forgiveness, because you don't realize you have always had forgiveness.

A quick read to discover all the things that we have in Christ are found in the first three chapters of Ephesians. Have church leadership elaborate these three chapters; no, I take that back; have the Holy Spirit elaborate the meaning of these three chapters for you. Ephesians 1:7...on this issue of forgiveness. If we don't resolve and come to understand this issue of forgiveness in the way that God wants us to understand it; then there is no way we are going to go on to maturity. We will not grow (11 Peter 1:5-11). We can't even really be truly thankful to God for what he has done for us until we come to understand the full impact of the forgiveness that has been granted to us.

Here is why we hinder our Christianity so much: Man in his unrelenting pride has to have a say so in his salvation. He has to inject himself into the equation. His performance oriented mindset that was developed so well in the world, carries over into his Christianity to be a part of the Gospel now. Therefore churchy religious doctrines get developed based on this way of thinking instead of based on what God plainly states in the Scriptures. If you haven't noticed, all the different denominations know only to stick to the script of that denomination's teaching . And also if you haven't noticed, all the self proclaiming non-denominational churches soon turn into a denomination. Don't you see how we have subtlly come to be no different than the Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus' time? The Pharisees and Sadducees were blind to not knowing that God was standing right in front of them; whereas we are blind to not knowing all of what it is that we have in God; blind to not knowing all that he has done for us. We can't come to discover that because we have our big fat religious selves in the way. Both groups, instead of their relationship with God being about God; they have made the relationship about themselves.

Instead of being a worldy immature church that can only ask God to give us more stuff, more stuff, more stuff; we need to discover the great depth and great significance of what it is...that we already have. It is there to be discovered. It is there to be tapped into. Upon receiving the life of Christ; what is the package deal that comes with that?

Verses 17-21: Before Jesus even stepped into history, all of mankind before him and right after Adam was already condemned. It's just that man never knew this until Jesus revealed it. Again, God taking a large amount of time in his dealings with man, and choosing to reveal truth in his timing. There are many of us who know unbelievers (and this could also be the case for some Christians) who may say it with different words, but the meaning is basically this: "Well, if there is a God, I think the good things I have done in my life will outweigh the bad things; and therefore I should make it through the pearly gates." And this is coming from people who are relatively intelligent. Or you hear this one: "Don't get me wrong, I think Christianity is a good thing for those people who need it. You know, the weak ones who can't help themselves." Wow! Intelligence and ignorance are completely two differnt things. People spend an entire lifetime believing a lie, based on whatever, while within a matter of seconds of reading, the truth can become known.

I think Jesus is telling us here that lost man wants to remain ignorant for two reasons: Evil men love their evil deeds (to whatever type and degree that may be individually); and the last thing they want to happen is for them to be exposed. We can look at a lost person without knowing him personally and know that this is true about him. It doesn't matter who that lost person is. On the other hand, in sharp contrast to this; 'whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.'

Verses 22-36: At one time Jesus told the religious Jews that they were the children of the devil (John 8:44). Here we have one doing the work of the devil. There is one in every crowd. There is one or two in every church wanting to destroy. In response to this Jew's intent; John speaks as if God himself was speaking giving the perfect answer. The Jew failed to provoke jealousy. John is too much of a man of God to be so easily lured into the affairs of men. He uses the occasion motivated out of joy (vs. 29) and controlled by the Holy Spirit to put forth an extensive prophetic word concerning Jesus.

The Father has placed everything in Jesus' hands. John the Baptist's quote ends in the last verse (vs.36) being very similar to what John the Apostle says in 1 John 5:12: "He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life." The key is the rejection of the Son. When the Father judges all of mankind in the end. He's not going to play a video or go into detail about specific sins. I suppose he could for those who insist; and I suppose some will. No, what the Father is going to do is simply ask the question: "What did you do with my Son?"