John 3:1 - 18

• Text passage John 3:1-18
• Recap Bible history –  Genesis 1-2 – creation / man for fellowship with god
• Man’s disobedience - Genesis 3
• out of love God delivers Children of Israel
• out of love God punishes  Children of Israel
• this cycle repeats itself many times
• God, for our sake, ends this cycle with Jesus’ sacrifice at cross – “Lamb of God”

redeemed back to God by Jesus

John 3

Born from Above

1-2   There was a man of the Pharisee sect, Nicodemus, a prominent leader among the Jews. Late one night he visited Jesus and said, "Rabbi, we all know you're a teacher straight from God. No one could do all the God-pointing, God-revealing acts you do if God weren't in on it."

-          Pharisees num. About 6000 in Israel

-          Very important to them to show outward religion (fasting, praying, ceremonial washing –etc)

-          Knew messiah coming

-          Very opposed to Jesus

-          Jesus very critical of them

-          Many theories on why he went at night but I think so no one would see him

-          Evidently, the Pharisees had drawn a conclusion about Jesus.

-          Called him teacher out of respect / I think he knew who Jesus was (John 7:50,51 & 19:39)

3      Jesus said, "You're absolutely right. Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it's not possible to see what I'm pointing to—to God's kingdom."

-          No kidding

-          Very well could have taken the attitude of “don’t even try to think of yourself as equal, but I believe Jesus Knew Nic. knew who Jesus was.

-          Everything Jesus did pointed to God’s Kingdom & He wanted to get across not only to Nic. But to you and I that we must accept the salvation God is giving to us. Eph 2:8-9

-    "born again" or "born from above" is an O.T. doctrine - Nicodemus should not have been surprised

4      "How can anyone," said Nicodemus, "be born who has already been born and grown up? You can't re-enter your mother's womb and be born again. What are you saying with this 'born-from-above' talk?"

    5-6 Jesus said, "You're not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation—the 'wind-hovering-over-the-water' creation,(Gen. 1:1) the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it's not possible to enter God's kingdom. When you look at a baby, it's just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can't see and touch—the Spirit—and becomes a living spirit.

 7-8 "So don't be so surprised when I tell you that you have to be 'born from above'—out of this world, so to speak. You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it's headed next. That's the way it is with everyone 'born from above' by the wind of God, the Spirit of God."
 9 Nicodemus asked, "What do you mean by this? How does this happen?"
 10-12 Jesus said, "You're a respected teacher of Israel and you don't know these basics? Listen carefully. I'm speaking sober truth to you. I speak only of what I know by experience; I give witness only to what I have seen with my own eyes. There is nothing secondhand here, no hearsay. Yet instead of facing the evidence and accepting it, you procrastinate with questions. If I tell you things that are plain as the hand before your face and you don't believe me, what use is there in telling you of things you can't see, the things of God?
 13-15 "No one has ever gone up into the presence of God except the One who came down from that Presence, the Son of Man. In the same way that Moses lifted the serpent in the desert (a type of Jesus Num 21:6-9 )so people could have something to see and then believe, it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up—and everyone who looks up to him, trusting and expectant, will gain a real life, eternal life.
 16-18 "This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him. (Message)

God’s purpose now is to re-establish Kingdom, in doing, He, sacrificed His Son to “buy back”

            - Jesus came 1^st time as a Savior not a Judge

-          Jews in those days believed Messiah would judge mankind – they had reason to believe that (Psalm 98:9, Isaiah 3:13)

they rejected Jesus, so salvation had to come from non-Jews (gentiles)Jews did not see Church age (we are in now) – Gospel supposed to come through Jews:
16 "For God so ^(W)loved the world, that He ^(X)gave His ^(Y)only begotten Son, that whoever ^(Z)believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 "For God ^(AA)did not send the Son into the world ^(AB)to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

-          notice He does not save by love – loves all unconditionally-saved or not: God will love us even if we choose to go to hell. It is our choice

He saves by Grace – His Grace comes by faith in His Word Eph 2:8-9 – you must be born again (John 3) by accepting and relying on His Word