SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/14/2016
8:51 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Inquiry
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 3:1-3
Message of
the verses: “1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees,
named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; 2
this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know
that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that
You do unless God is with him." 3 Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Truly,
truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’”
Now we have already mentioned that this story of
Nicodemus meeting Jesus should be tied in with verses 23-25 of chapter two as
Nicodemus surely saw some of the signs (miracles) that Jesus did during the
time of the Passover celebration that Jesus and His disciples attended which
marks the first Passover that Jesus went to after beginning His actual ministry
as seen in chapter one and two. Now we
also looked at the truth of the statement “24
But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew
all men, 25 and because He did not need
anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man” (John
2:24-25). So when we tie this into this meeting we know that Jesus knows the
hearts of all men including Nicodemus, as according to John MacArthur “Nicodemus
himself was one of those superficial believers whose heard He read like an open
book. Instead of affirming his profession,
the Lord refused to accept Nicodemus’s faith, which was solely based on the
signs he had witnessed (v. 2). Jesus pointed him to the life-transforming
nature of true saving faith.”
Now we have mentioned the word Pharisees, which
Nicodemus was a part of but I want to take the time to quote from John
MacArthur more about Pharisees. He
writes “Nicodemus was a member of the elite religious party the Pharisees. Their name probably derives from a Hebrew
verb meaning ‘to separate’; they were the ‘separated ones’ in the sense of
being zealous for the Mosaic law (and their own oral traditions, which the
added to it [cf. Matt. 15:2-6; Mark 7:8-1 3]), who opposed the Hellenizing of
Jewish culture under the wicked Seleucid king Antiopus Epiphanies. Unlike their archrivals the Sadducees, who
tended to be wealthy priests or Levites, the Pharisees generally came from the
middle class. Therefore, though few in
number (there were about 6,000 at the time of Herod the Great, according to the
first century Jewish historical Josephus), they had great influence with the common
people (though, ironically, the Pharisees often viewed some with contempt [cf.
7:49]). Despite being the minority
party, their popularity with the people gave them significant influence in the
Sanhedrin (cf. Acts 5:34-40).
“With the disappearance of the Sadducees in AD 70
(after the temple was destroyed) and the Zealots in AD 135 (after Bar Kochba
revolt was crushed), the Pharisees became the dominant force in Judaism. In fact, by the end of the second century AD,
with the completion of the Mishnah (the written compilation of the oral law,
rituals, and traditions), the Pharisee’s teaching became virtually synonymous
with Judaism.
“Ironically,
it was their very zeal for the law that caused the Pharisees to become
ritualized and external. Having
unchanged hearts, they would only replace true religion with mere behavior
modification and ritual. In response to
their pseudo-spirituality, Jesus scathingly pointed out: ‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and
have neglected the weightier provisions of the law; justice and mercy and
faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting
the others’ (Matt. 23:23; cf. 6:1-5; 9:14; 12:2; Luke 11:38-39).” I think this quote will give us a better idea
of who the Pharisees were and as we look through the New Testament we will find
that Nicodemus and Saul of Tarsus who latter is known as the apostle Paul are
the only two Pharisees who came to faith in Jesus Christ. And as we look at verse ten we find out that
Nicodemus was no run-of-the-mill Pharisee for the definite article was used by
Jesus to describe him: "Are you the
teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?” Now we will get to talk more about this verse
when we get here, but notice that Jesus calls Nicodemus “the teacher of Israel”
while He is talking to him. Nicodemus
was also a member of the Sanhedrin as seen in John 7:50 “Nicodemus (he who came
to Him before, being one of them) said to them.”
Now John MacArthur writes the following on the
Sanhedrin: “Jewish tradition traced the origin
of the Sanhedrin to the seventy elders who assisted Moses (Num. 11:16-17). Ezra, also according to tradition,
reorganized that body after the exile (cf. Ezra 5:5, 9; 6:7-8, 14; 10:8). However, the Sanhedrin of the New Testament
times probably originated during the period of Persian or Greek rule. It consisted of seventy-one members, presided
over by the reigning high priest. It
included men from the influential priestly families, elders (family and tribal
heads), scribes (experts in the law), and any former high priests who were
still alive. Under the Romans, the
Sanhedrin exercised wide-ranging powers in civil, criminal, and religious
matters (though the Romans withheld the power of capital punishment
[18:31]). It had the authority both to
make arrests (Matt. 26:47; Acts 4:1-3; 5:17-18) and to conduct trials (Matt.
26:57ff.; Acts 5:27 ff.). Although its
influence extended even to Jews of the Diaspora (Acts 9:1-2; 22:5; 26:12), the
Sanhedrin’s direct authority seems to have been limited to Judea (it apparently
wielded no power over Jesus while He was in Galilee; cf. John 7:1). After the failure of the Jewish revolt (ad
66-70), the Sanhedrin was abolished and replaced by the Beth Din (Court of Judgment).
Unlike the Sanhedrin, however, the Beth
Din was composed solely of scribes (lawyers), and its decisions were
exclusively limited to religious matters.”
I realize that all of the is kind of technical things
about who Nicodemus was and the fact that he was a member of the Sanhedrin and
also a Pharisee, but I believe that this is important for us to understand who
he was and because of his position we can be sure that it took a lot of courage
for him to come to Jesus and perhaps that is one of the reasons why he came to
Him at night, or maybe it was because that was the best time to have an audience
with Him. We will talk more about this
in our next SD on these verses.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: As I look at Nicodemus in this chapter and in
the proceeding chapters I do admire his courage.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
Be courageous.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Elijah” (1 Kings 17:1).
Today’s Bible
question: “Which book records an ax head
floating in the water?”
Answer in our next SD.
1/14/2016 9:56 AM
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