SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/13/2016
10:36 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 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?”
We continue to look at these first ten verses in the
gospel of John, verses that are very familiar to most people who have read the
Bible, for the third chapter of John most likely is the most famous portion of
the New Testament, for in it we have John 3:16, which is likely the most famous
of all New Testament verses.
When I look at this third chapter of John I think
back at my own conversion as there are some similar things that happened to me
that are seen in this section. When I
was young my family went to church most every Sunday, and we also went to
Sunday school. As I look back on that
experience I truly wonder if the preachers I grew up under really were born
again believers in Jesus Christ. After
graduating from High School I went to work for a popular car company, working
in their very large foundry. Later on
after a failed marriage I began to wonder about life and especially the afterlife. A high school friend of mine told me about a “religious”
experience that he had, and this only caused me to think more about this
subject. I remember going down to see
this friend in November of 1972, and actually this was a unplanned trip,
something that just came up and I wanted to do, that is fly down to Orlando
Florida from Cleveland for a long week-end, so I did. Now comes the part that is kind of similar to
Nicodemus, at least I think it is. I had
to make a stop in Atlanta GA. and I was looking over some astrology magazines
during this stop when a young couple came up to me, I say young but so was I at
the time, and they started to talk to me about the return of Jesus Christ,
something that really caught my interest.
We talked for a while and the conversation stuck with me as I truly
believe that this was something that the Holy Spirit began to use in my heart. I
went on to Florida and partied with my friend and came back home, but there was
a seed planted. I think that when we
look at the story of Nicodemus in our verses today that Jesus planted a seed in
his heart that later on in his life the Spirit of God used to bring about
salvation as we will see as we continue our study in John’s gospel. Continuing my story I can look back and see
the truth of another verse in this third chapter of John’s gospel and that is
when Jesus states ‘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.’” The next time I
went to visit this friend in Florida this is exactly what happened to me as I
surely was not going down to Florida in the middle of an Ohio winter to sit and
listen to someone on tape talk about the end of the world, but the Spirit was
moving in my heart just as Jesus tells us in verse eight as I heard the sound
of the Wind but at the time did not know where it was coming from, and “so is
everyone who is born of the Spirit.” The
Spirit continues to work in my heart to cause me to have a desire to grow in
the Lord and I will be ever thankful for both of those trips to Florida to see
my friend, for God used them to change my life completely around as I shudder
to think what my life would be without Christ in it.
What we are talking about in this section of John’s
gospel is salvation, as Jesus tells Nicodemus what authentic salvation is about
as we will see as we study this section of Scripture.
In his commentary of the Gospel of John Warren
Wiersbe states the following about Nicodemus “He was a man of high moral
character, deep religious hunger, and yet profound spiritual blindness.” There are probably many people like this in
the world today that believe that they are on their way to heaven, but like
Nicodemus they are in need of the new birth.
One more quote from Warren Wiersbe and we will conclude this second
introduction to these verses. He writes
at the beginning of his commentary on the third chapter of John: “Not only was Benjamin Franklin a great
statesman and inventor, but he was also a great correspondent and received
letters from famous people from all over the world. One day he received what could well have been
the most important letter ever to come to his desk. It was from the well-known British preacher
George Whitefield.
‘I find that you grow more and more famous in the
learned world,’ Whitefield wrote ‘As you have made such progress in investigating
the mysteries of electricity, I now humbly urge you to give diligent heed to
the mystery of the new birth. It is a
most important and interesting study and, when mastered, will richly repay you
for your pains.’
“The new birth is one of the key topics in John
3. In addition, in this chapter we see
Jesus Christ in three different roles: the Teacher (John 3:1-21), the
Bridegroom (John 3:22-30), and the Witness (John 3:31-36).” We may not be following this outline that is
from Dr. Wiersbe, but I am sure we will Jesus in all of this ways as we go
through this wonderful 3rd chapter of John.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “In the palace” (Ezra 6:2).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who was referred to as the ‘Tishbite’?”
Answer in our next SD.
1/13/2016 11:16 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment