A Study of the Gospel of John (Chapter 3, verses 1-21)

Gospel of John

Chapter 3

Verses 1 - 21

Introduction:

I’m Born Again. You must be Born Again. Are you Born Again? If you’ve been a Christian for very long then you’ve probably heard this term Born Again used more time than you can count. In fact it’s been used so much that it really doesn’t hold the same significance for many as it once did when it was first popularized, why is that? Is it because it’s not a legitimate term in Christianity with no real significance or is it because it has been used so much and been propagandized to point of just being another Christian catch phrase like WWJD, Saved, and John 3:16. I believe we are good at taking truth and commercializing it to the point that it looses its power with the very people it is meant to reach. It is heard so much from people who don’t exhibit the truths these terms imply in their lives that they dull the senses of those who they are trying to reach with the truth of the Gospel. Maybe we need to just let God’s word do the talking and we concentrate on doing the walking then maybe more of our friends and co-workers can discover the truth of being Born Again in their own lives.

Nicodemas – A Pharisee, also being identified as a ruler of the Jews means he was a member of the elite seventy-member Jewish Supreme Court, the Sanhedrin.

Nicodemas recognized that their was something special about Jesus, he wasn’t ready to call him the messiah though with the knowledge he had he would have been somewhat curious because of the things he knew of Jesus and what he had witnessed. Remember, no prophet from God had been active in Jewish history since Zachariah some 400 years earlier.

His coming at night could have been out of fear of being seen but it also could have been just the most appropriate time to try and meet with Jesus.

Unless one is Born Again he cannot see the kingdom of God – What was Jesus trying to say here? Nicodemas wasn’t sure; his train of thought followed the natural process of human birth. But Jesus was not speaking of physical birth; he was speaking of spiritual rebirth, being made alive unto God as originally intended before the fall.

1 Cor 2:10-16 – Only those with the Spirit can understand the things of God and walk in them.

Testimony – How I came to Christ

A. My early years

B. My Navy years

C. The last months of life as I knew it.

D. Salvation. – Rocky start – loved by God anyway.

Water and Spirit – there are two trains of thought by scholars on this. 1. It is referring to Water Baptism and Salvation, both the outward sign and the inward work of the Spirit. 2. Refers to the natural birth process and a rebirth in the Spirit at salvation. I lean more towards the second explanation.

At natural birth we are spiritually stillborn, dead in our sins until we are regenerated by the Spirit at Salvation thus being Born Again to our heavenly father.

Jesus was quite surprised, though not really for he knew all men’s hearts, that Nicodemas with the knowledge he had was ignorant of these facts and unable to comprehend them. No wonder the Jews were so far from God in Spirit and truth.

The Gospel in a nutshell – John 3:16

Did Nicodemas accept the words of Jesus? There is a good possibility from what we see later in scripture. But many refused to open their eyes and their hearts to receive the testimony of this man sent from God. There senses were so dulled from years of religious rote that they could not remove the scales from their eyes and accept the truth of God. It is our natural bent, it is the path of sinners. Left to ourselves we will seek the darkness before being exposed by the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. His light reveals all and cleanses our souls by the power of His blood.