SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/12/2016
11:07 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Introduction to John 3:1-10
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 3:1-10
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." 4 Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when
he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born,
can he?" 5 Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is
born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 “That
which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit. 7 “Do not be amazed that I said to you, ’You must be born again.’
8 "The wind blows where it wishes
and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it
is going; so is everyone
who is born of the Spirit." 9 Nicodemus said to Him, "How can
these things be?" 10 Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel and
do not understand these things?”
I want you to remember that verses 23-25 are
connected to these verses. Let me quote
them and then explain as to why this is true:
“23 Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many
believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. 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.” Now we can be sure
that Nicodemus was one of those who was watching the miracles that Jesus was
doing, and I believe that it was at this time that the Spirit of God began to
work on his heart, so much in fact that as we see in our verses today that he
had to come to see Jesus.
It has been a while since I read books by Bodie and Brock Thoene, but while
reading these two historical authors who wrote historical fiction I remember
how they took this story of Nicodemus meeting Jesus in their story, and what
they wrote in their novel was probably more like what happened than what John
included in his narrative we see in the third chapter of John. We can be sure that Jesus took more time with
Nicodemus than seen here and in the book the Thoene’s spoke of Jesus taking
Nicodemus out to look at the stars and while out there Jesus named all the
different galaxies and star consolations that He made. You get the feeling that when you read this
book the love that Jesus truly had for Nicodemus as I am sure was shown when he
came to Jesus by night.
I wish to go to a sermon that John
MacArthur preached on Jan. 13, 2013 on this section, actually just the first
three verses, and quote some of the things he stated in that sermon to help to
set the stage for this very familiar passage.
“We understand the doctrine of salvation to be made up of many
elements. There is, of course, the matter of sovereign election and
predestination. There is the reality of regeneration. There is the truth of
conversion. There is the great truth which we love of justification. There’s
the element of sanctification. There’s the truth of redemption. There are the
elements of faith and repentance and all of these are aspects and components of
the one great miracle of salvation.
“And in coming to John chapter 3, we come to the
great truth of regeneration. In the work of God to save His people, this is the
second work. The first being election--we are chosen in Him before the
foundation of the world, predestined to be saved. When then in time election is
activated into salvation, the first great work of God is the work of
regeneration, which is the subject of this chapter of this conversation that
Jesus has. This then becomes very foundational in our understanding of the work
of God in saving His people.” Now we
will pick up a little later on in his sermon as he is speaking about the term “born
again.”
“Our Lord could have used other analogies if He
had intended to communicate that we do make a contribution, but He chose this
one to make it crystal-clear that new birth happens to us not by us. We receive
this birth from someone else in the same way that we receive our physical way
from someone else. Birth happens to us, not by us. And that is exactly the
point of this analogy. No one gives himself or herself physical life, and no
one by any means gives himself or herself spiritual life. That’s the whole
point. Spiritual birth or regeneration, or new creation, whatever term you want
to use, is the second work of God in salvation. And it is wholly a work of God.
The first work, election. Wholly a sovereign work of God. The second work,
regeneration, wholly a work of God.
“Now this text is so important and so foundational
and so basic that a person cannot truly be saved at all without understanding
this reality. There are a lot of things you don’t have to understand. You don’t
have to understand or even believe the doctrine of divine election. But you
must understand the doctrine of divine regeneration and new birth in order to
be saved. It is also essential not only for salvation, but it is essential for
evangelism and the fulfillment of the great commission. This is crucial truth
and consequently we’re going to work our way through it and I want you to make
a total commitment to engage yourself with this amazing conversation which
leads to the understanding of this amazing revelation.
“Now it’s a very familiar story. Everybody knows
Nicodemus. We know his name. His name, by the way, is a Greek name,
transliterated really into Aramaic. In Greek it means “victor over the people.”
The first part of it, “Nic” comes from nike, nike, which is the word for
triumphant or victory. So his parents gave him a very elevated name, took a
Greek name, transliterated into Aramaic and he was fully Jewish but has this
unique, common, very common, Greek name. And we know about him. We know his
story. But we really don’t understand the full theology that is coming to us in
this amazing account.
“Now this account is more than a story. Many times
this is told as a story and we don’t get very deep into it. But we’re going to
go where maybe you’ve never gone before in the story. So much are we going to
go into the depth of the story that it could take us a month to get through
these ten verses. But I promise you, what it yields to you will be a treasure
that you will highly prize.
“Now I’ve been telling you that the whole purpose
of the gospel of John can be understood by two concepts. One, it is polemical. That is, it is a defense of the
deity of Christ. It
is a proof and evidence of the deity of Christ. Every paragraph, every section,
every incident is to indicate to us that He is the Son of God. So it has a
polemical aspect.
“Secondly, it
has an evangelistic aspect. Our understanding that He is the Son of God
is so that we can believe in Him and have eternal life. That’s the evangelistic
side. This account is no different. It is first polemical. It proves that Jesus is God. How does it do
that? Because Jesus knows what Nicodemus is thinking. That’s omniscience. And
it is also evangelistic because it gives us the necessary truth for salvation.
So John, consistent with
his twofold emphasis on polemics and on evangelism, covers both.
“Now what this story makes clear for us, and I’m
going to tell you this at the beginning and then I’m going to tell you at the
end, and I’m going to show you in the middle. What it makes clear to us is that
salvation is not for those
who become more religious. It is not for those who try harder to be good. It is not for those who live
morally improved lives. It is not for those who turn away from certain vices. It is not for those who diminish
evil behavior and escalate noble and good behavior. Salvation is not for those
people. The kingdom of salvation, the kingdom of God, opens its door only to people who
abandon all of that. Did
you get that? The
doors of the kingdom open only to those who abandon all self-effort to earn
their way. And, on the other hand, receive from God a new birth. In other words, they can’t
improve on who they are, they have to be someone else other than they are.
The doors of the kingdom
only open to those who cease trying to earn a place in the kingdom and are
given new life. In
other words, you have to delete your entire life, hit the reset button and
begin all over again.”
I wanted to give you these quotes as I think that
they are very important as we begin to un-wrap this familiar section of
Scripture and as we all learn more things about it, things that I know that I
did not know before. Needles to say we
will have at least one more introduction to this section before we begin to
look at it, so at this point I will stop and take up more of this in our next
SD.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:
“God” Genesis 46:2-3).Today’s Bible question (Now this is a very hard one, so hard that I will give you the Scripture reference to look up.) “Where was a scroll found at Achmetha?” (Ezra 6:2)
Answer in our next SD.
1/12/2016 11:44 AM
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