Apologize for the delay there. It was working fine just before services, but we probably have a bad power cord there. We will continue today with our study of the Gospels. We'll pick it up in John 2. Last time we talked about Jesus Christ's first miracle, which was turning the water to wine at the wedding feast there in Kanaah. Then we talked about his cleansing of the temple at the first Passover of his ministry, about six months into his ministry. Today we'll pick up the story with something else that takes place at that Passover feast in Jerusalem. That is his discussion with Nicodemus. Before that, John makes a few more comments here to set the stage. Pick it up here in John 2 and verse 23. John says, When he was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast, and this is talking about the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is generically called the Passover Feast in the terminology at that time, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he did. This word signs is often translated miracles. It means a divine sign there. It can mean either signs or miracles. John, in his Gospel, clearly means it to talk about miracles. Verse 24, But Jesus did not commit himself to them, because he knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. It's easy to gloss over these few verses here, but it's really interesting, because earlier in the chapter, as we talked about at considerable length last time, John talked about the miracle of the water, of Jesus turning the water to wine there at Cana. It goes into considerable detail about that, but here John just mentions in passing that Jesus at the Passover feast performed miracles that got a lot of people's attention there, but he doesn't say what the miracles were. Rather odd, isn't it here? All he says is that some people believed in him when they saw these miracles. So what's going on here? Why does John not talk about the miracles, but rather talks about Jesus' reaction to the people's reaction to those miracles here? Well, the real question that John is addressing in these few sentences is why did not Jesus then and there openly proclaim that he is the Messiah? Because after all, people, as he says here, do believe in him as a result of that. So basically the answer to that is the time is not right yet for him to openly declare who and what he is. This is about six months into his ministry, very early on. And among other things, he still had many disciples whom he would call. He's only chosen, I think, five at this point. But most important, probably, is what John points out here about those who saw the miracles. That Jesus knew that people were fickle, basically, and that their interests would be short-lived.
He knew that people would be attracted by the miracles, Jesus did, but he did not want a large crowd following him who knew that he could perform miracles, but they didn't really know what it meant to be a disciple of his, really did not know what his teachings were. That would come later. What he wanted is a small group, a very dedicated group, that he could train to be the foundation of the Church, and people who were prepared to follow him to the end. And the circumstances are not there for that yet. And this is why he does not, this early in his ministry, openly proclaim who and what he is. So with that background, then, we'll continue on with chapter 3 and pick up the main part of the story we'll be covering today.
John says there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. As Nicodemus, or Hebrew, he would be called Nakhdemon, Nakhdemon in Hebrew. Nicodemus is a Greek translation of that. But who is this man? He's mentioned several times in the Gospel of John. It says here that he was a Pharisee.
Now, one of the study questions I sent out last night was, what do we learn about the Pharisees from this verse? Well, we tend to view, as I've mentioned before, Pharisees as being collectively, as a group, very smug, very self-righteous, very arrogant, legalistic, hypocritical men who are continually opposing Jesus. And as we see from this example, that is not the case. That there are different thoughts, different strains of thinking and belief among the Pharisees, just as there were among the Jewish people as a whole at that time. We can't just generically lump all the Pharisees together and say they were all very smug, all very hypocritical, all very legalistic. This is not the case because, as we see here, Nicodemus is a Pharisee. And later on, in the book of Acts, we'll find that Pharisees are called into the church, probably the most famous of whom is the Apostle Paul, who is a Pharisee and comes into the church. And years later, he still says, I am a Pharisee. He didn't say, I was a Pharisee. He says, I am a Pharisee. He still considered himself a Pharisee, even though he was an apostle of the church. So we need to understand this. Not all of the Pharisees were exactly alike there. So as we see here, John also says about Nicodemus that he was a ruler of the Jews, as it says here. Apparently, what this means is he is a member of the Sanhedrin, the 70-member legal body, the chief legal body of the Jews at that time. They weren't rulers in the sense of a king like Herod or a governor like Pontius Pilate or whatever. They weren't Roman administrators, but they were part of the primary legal body of the Jews, much like the Supreme Court would be today. And again, there are 70 members of this Sanhedrin at that time. So let's notice a little bit more other places where Nicodemus is mentioned in the Gospel of John to understand more about who this individual is.
We find him mentioned also in John 7, verse 47. We'll read through verse 52. And this is the last feast of tabernacles before Jesus is crucified six months later. And the Pharisees send some men to arrest Jesus, but they come back, if you remember the story, saying, We've never seen anybody teach like this man. So they didn't arrest him. And then we pick up the story here in verse 47.
But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed. And continuing on, now we find Nicodemus mentioned. Nicodemus, and it's identified here who he was, he who came to Jesus by night, being one of them, one of the rulers, one of the Pharisees, said to them, Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing? And that's a logical, rational explanation, as one would expect from somebody who is a legal jurist or a member of the Sanhedrin. But notice then the response they give to Nicodemus. They answered and said to him, Are you also from Galilee? Search and look, for no profit has arisen out of Galilee. So they did not answer the legal point that Nicodemus brings up. They just made an irrelevant argument to try to dismiss the point that Nicodemus brought up. And the wise advice, frankly, that he had given here. We find another final mention of Nicodemus in John 19. And this is after Jesus has been crucified. And beginning in verse 38 of John 19, it says, But after this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate gave him permission, so he came and took the body of Jesus. And Nicodemus, again identified as who at first came to Jesus by night, also came with Joseph of Arimathea, bringing a mixture of myrrh and allos, about a hundred pounds. So again, we see this is the same Nicodemus here.
And he's now helping Joseph of Arimathea to entomb the body of Jesus Christ, and preparing or bringing with him, providing rather a great deal, a very valuable amount of spices to put with Jesus there to cover up the smell, frankly, of the decomposing body there in the tomb.
So this also tells us, incidentally, that Nicodemus is apparently quite a wealthy individual for providing this large amount of spices there to help out with the burial of the body of Jesus. And continuing in verse 40, So there they laid Jesus because of the Jews' preparation day, for the tomb was nearby. So we see from this that Nicodemus is certainly a supporter of Jesus and goes with Joseph of Arimathea to claim the body and to entomb it in Joseph's new tomb. He at first comes to Jesus by night, but later on, as we see here, he's considerably bolder in more or less publicly proclaiming his support for Jesus by doing this. So he seems to be quite open in his support of Jesus at this point, although at this point it's too late to make a difference there, unfortunately. So with this background about Nicodemus, that he's a wealthy man, he's a member of the Sanhedrin, he's a Pharisee. Let's return back to John 3, where Nicodemus first comes to Jesus by night and pick up the story. In verse 2, So a couple of interesting points packed into this one sentence here. First of all, notice what Nicodemus calls Jesus. He calls him a rabbi, which means a teacher, a master, or a great one. So he's acknowledging that Jesus is a teacher, a rabbi there. That's the meaning of the word rabbi, as we've talked about before. Another question, he says, We know that you are a teacher, come from God. Who's the we? Don't know for sure, he doesn't explain, but could be the Pharisees, could be the Sanhedrin, probably parts of both. Probably there were Pharisees and members of the Sanhedrin who do indeed understand that Jesus is sent from God, because of the miracles that he is performing here. And again, as we'll see later on in the book of Acts, there are people from all walks and classes of that society who are called into the church, and even a number of the priests who are called into the church later on. Another question, why did Nicodemus come to Jesus by night? We've traditionally assumed that he didn't want to be seen publicly with Jesus because of his position, because he is a member of the Sanhedrin, because he is a Pharisee, and what that would have done to his reputation. That may be true, but culturally speaking, there may be another explanation too that we ought to consider. I'm not saying one or the other is true, but another one to consider is that it was typical among the teaching of the rabbis, at that time, that nighttime was the best time to study the Scriptures. Why is that? Well, because you're not going to be interrupted as much as you would during the day. That may be true of a number of us tonight. We may find that nighttime is the best time to sit and study the Scriptures, because it's quieter, you don't have to be at work, there's not all the commotion going on during the day.
So fitting in with that is what do we see when Jesus is out in public during his ministry? What's typically happening? What's typically happening is when people find out where Jesus is, they come and flock around Him. They want to be around Him during that time. They want to hear Him teach. They want to see a miracle perform, something like that. So when Jesus is out in public and that becomes known, people chorus around Him and crowds gather there. So it's quite possible also that Nicodemus is just waiting until after night when all the people have gone home to go and meet with Jesus privately because he wants to sit down and have a long discussion with Him, so he's not going to be interrupted during all that time. So there are a couple of possibilities, other things to consider in that. So maybe it's not that he's ashamed of being seen with Jesus, or maybe he's not concerned about what that will do to his reputation. He just simply comes and wants to have a good, in-depth discussion with Jesus to find out what he believes and what he teaches as a rabbi. And indeed, that is exactly what we see happens here. Continuing on in verse 3, after Nicodemus mentions the miracles or the signs that Jesus has performed, Jesus then responds to Him. Jesus answered and said to him, Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Now this is a rather strange transition here. Nicodemus comes and compliments Jesus here. And then Jesus gives him this strange statement, seemingly out of nowhere, saying you must be born again to see the kingdom of God. But is it? Is it really out of nowhere here? Let's analyze that a little bit more, because as we see and we'll see through the Gospels, it's very common for a rabbi to give a very challenging statement to whoever he's talking to, whether an individual or a crowd, to get the person to think. We've talked about that in earlier messages in this series about methods of rabbinical teaching and so on, and asking questions to get their audience to think and analyze and to come up with their own answer that they own, rather than just for the rabbi to tell them something outright. So what's the connection then between the statement from Nicodemus and the response from Jesus here? Well, first of all, Nicodemus notes that Jesus must be a messenger from God, or he couldn't be doing these miracles that he's performing. So what does Jesus do? He essentially tells Nicodemus that it's not the miracles that are important. What is really important is a far greater miracle, a complete and miraculous transformation in the life of a human being. Kind of cuts to the chase there, cuts to that miracle, the miracle of being born again that is far more important than the other miracles that Jesus had been performing there. So what does Jesus mean then by this statement about being born again? And I'd like to preface this with a comment that I have been thinking about, wanted to work this in sometime, and wasn't sure when. But when we first started going through this series of the Gospels, and I began to realize how long this is going to take to get through them, I began to feel guilty about not giving doctrinal sermons on the Sabbath here on a regular basis.
But then I got a little further and realized that going through the Gospels, we're going to cover every doctrine the Church teaches at some point as we come across them in the Gospels. For instance, we've already talked about the nature of God in John 1. We've talked about the identity of Jesus Christ.
We've talked about the accuracy of Bible prophecy on a number of occasions so far. We've talked about Satan the devil in the temptation. We've talked about baptism when discussing John and Jesus. We've talked about the history of Israel. We've talked about God's plan of salvation and Jesus Christ's role in it. We've talked about God's calling when discussing the disciples, probably a number of other doctrinal subjects that I've already forgotten here. Today we'll talk about born again and what that means and about our destiny as part of God's family. I hope you don't feel like you're being shorted somehow by not getting doctrinal sermons because, indeed, we are. We're, like I say, probably going to cover every doctrine of the Church at some point as we go through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It's just that they'll come up in the order in which they appear in the Gospels here. So let's continue then and talk about this subject of being born again. Continuing on now in verse 4, we see that Nicodemus is quite surprised by Jesus' statement. Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? So he knows Jesus is talking about a rebirth here. And then Jesus responds again with another pretty surprising, challenging statement. Verse 5, Jesus answered, Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Now, this was quite surprising to me as I began researching this. The Jews actually talked about terminology of being born again in that day. The rabbis of that period would say that when somebody became a convert to Judaism, say they're Egyptian or Syrian or whatever, they convert to Judaism, which was fairly common in that day. We'll find a lot of that in the book of Acts. But the Jews then referred to that person who became a convert to Judaism as being, quote, like a newborn child, end quote. In other words, when they became a convert to Judaism, they were born again. They became a child again. And then like a child would learn and grow, they would learn and grow in the practices and teachings of Judaism.
So this was not a new concept or new terminology there to Nicodemus. But the difference is what the rabbis of that day taught about being born again and what Jesus meant when he uses the term born again are very different things. And we see that in how Jesus defines and explains what he means by that terminology. First of all, we may notice here that we must be born of water and the Spirit. Two different things. Water and the Spirit. Two things here. Two separate things. And some people get confused by that statement. So let's go through and dissect it. There are three main interpretations about what it means to be born of water here. We'll go through these briefly here. One is that it's talking about water in a general form of needing to be cleansed, needing to be washed, needing to be purified. And that is true. It's certainly true that we need to be washed, we need to be cleansed, we need to be purified to enter the kingdom of God. But that explanation isn't really sufficient. It leaves a lot of unanswered questions there. Another explanation is that being born of water is talking about a physical human birth. In other words, when a baby is born, there is a great deal of water, the amniotic fluid from the mother's womb that comes out with a baby there. We're familiar with a woman's water breaking there at birth as part of that physical process there.
But then that really doesn't make sense in this context because everyone is born that way. So what would be different there? Why would Jesus note that as saying you have to be born of water? Because everybody is born of water. That goes without saying. So there's nothing out of the ordinary about that. That's not a good explanation here.
But there is one other way that we can be figured of being reborn by water, and that is through baptism. Let's take a look at a few scriptures relating to that. We'll begin in Romans 6. This is just breaking in a few verses here into a very long discussion about baptism. But notice Paul's terminology here, what he says. Romans 6, verse 3 says, So Paul is comparing coming up out of the waters of baptism to a new life. A very similar terminology to what Jesus Christ is using here. Another similar passage. We'll look at three of them relating to baptism here. Colossians 2, verses 12 and 13. Again, breaking into a thought, Paul says that we are buried with him, with Jesus, in baptism, in which you also were raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised Jesus from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses, in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he's talking about two of the Colossians, who are Gentiles. That's why he talks about their uncircumcised state. You, he has made alive together with him. So again, we see the metaphor, the phrasing of new life, or new birth, here in Paul's terminology. And finally, one other last... there's actually many, many scriptures, we could talk about this. But just to prove that baptism is necessary to enter the kingdom of God, we see Christ's own words from Mark 16 and verse 16. He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned. So very clear here that to enter the kingdom of God is salvation. And we must be baptized to be saved. So this seems to be the most likely meaning of the water that Jesus is referring to back here in John 3 and verse 5. That unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. So in other words, we have to be baptized, have to receive God's Spirit, that begins a process of conversion and spiritual growth that culminates then in the second part of what Jesus is talking about here. Again, most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. So let's address the second part of this phrase then and what it means to be born of the Spirit. And Jesus then goes on to explain briefly what he means here.
He says in verse 6, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. He's contrasting two very different things here. A fleshly physical birth and a spirit birth. One is a birth to a physical human life, life in the flesh, and the other is a birth to spirit, or to spirit life.
Since Jesus doesn't say a lot about it, let's turn over to what Paul wrote in the resurrection chapter, 1 Corinthians 15. We see again very similar terminology here. It's just that Paul actually gives us a brilliant commentary on essentially what Jesus is talking about here.
Let's read through some passages here. 1 Corinthians 15, verses 50-54. Here too, Jesus said, that which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of spirit is spirit. But notice here Paul using very similar language. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption.
Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. Changed, converted from flesh to spirit. And then he goes on to explain what he means by this.
Very clearly, he says, verse 53. For this corruptible, this physical fleshly body, must put on incorruption. Something is no longer subject to corruption, to sickness, to death, to decay. And this mortal, this physical flesh that gets sick and wears out and dies, must put on immortality.
Eternal life, in other words. Eternal spirit, no longer being subject to death. And verse 54, so when this corruptible, this mortal flesh that we live in, has put on incorruption, this glorified spirit that we will become, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. Death is swallowed up in the resurrection of the dead because they will never be subject to death again. Therefore, that is the ultimate victory. So this is pretty plain. You have physical flesh and you have eternal spirit. And they are very different things. And the physical human flesh cannot inherit eternal life, as we see here in the kingdom of God. Paul and Jesus Christ are saying the exact same thing. It's just that Paul goes into a lot more detail about it. Let's read a little more. Let's back up earlier in 1 Corinthians 15 and begin with verse 35 and see how Paul gives more details about what this means and make it perfectly clear what is being talked about here. So picking it up in verse 35, and this is from the new international version, I think its wording is considerably more clear here. Paul starts this discussion. He says, but someone may ask, how are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come? And then skipping down a few verses, he talks about the differences and some important things to explain his point. He says, verse 39, all flesh is not the same. Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another, and fish another.
He's simply saying that human beings are different from mammals, are different from birds, are different from fish. They're all very different kinds of creatures. Yes, they're all made out of flesh, but they're all different kinds of flesh, different designs, as God intended, different bodies.
Verse 40, there are also heavenly bodies, and there are earthly bodies. But the splendor of the heavenly bodies is of one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. He's talking about the planets, he's talking about the physical earth that we live on, and the planets that we see up here, which actually reflects a tremendous knowledge of astronomy, considering that day and age.
So he goes on to explain, the sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another, and the stars another. And star differs from star in splendor. In other words, what he's saying is the sun is this big burning ball of fire that creates light and creates heat for us. The moon, on the other hand, is a very cold gray ball up there in the night sky.
And he says there are different kinds of stars. There are huge stars, there are tiny stars, there are black holes, there are yellow stars, there are blue stars, there are red stars. We classify them that way. Dwarfs, and red giants, and this kind of thing here. And they are as different from each other as human beings are from animals, and from fish, and from birds. This is the point. He's reinforcing it using different examples here. And just as these are all very different, Paul explains, verse 42, so it will be with the resurrection of the dead.
The body that is sown, interesting, what do you do when you sow something? You plant it in the ground. So the body that dies and is planted in the ground is perishable. It's made out of flesh, it's going to go in the ground, it's going to rot, it's going to decay into dirt. It is raised imperishable. He says, it is sown in dishonor. Again, being made out of flesh, it's going to corrupt, and corrode, and die. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. Again, a physical body subject to death and decay.
It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, a physical body, in other words, made out of flesh. It is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Verse 45, continuing on here, he says, So it is written, the first Adam, referring to the first man that God created, became a living being, the last Adam, referring to Jesus Christ, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the physical, but the natural.
And after that, the spiritual. The first man, Adam, was of the dust of the earth, and the second man, Jesus Christ, was from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth, and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And to wrap this up in verse 49, And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, Adam, because we're flesh and blood like Adam was, so we shall, in the resurrection, bear the likeness of the man from heaven.
In other words, we're going to be glorified as spirit, as Jesus Christ is spirit here. And again, this is almost a commentary on Jesus Christ words back here in John 3. So with that background, Paul's beautiful explanation of here, of what it means to be resurrected to spirit.
Let's go back and re-examine Christ's words here in verse 6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Two very different things here. That again is exactly what Paul says, just that Paul goes into much greater detail, contrasting two very different things, a physical, fleshly birth, and a spirit birth.
One is to physical human life, and the other is to spirit life. Then Jesus goes on, Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. And then Jesus gives a brief description of what it is like.
What he means born again is spirit, and gives Nicodemus an illustration from nature that Nicodemus can understand. Jesus says, The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the spirit. What's he saying? He's saying that spirit is invisible to the human eye. Our physical eyes cannot detect spirit. It's invisible to us. It's in a different dimension, a different universe, a parallel universe, you might say, to use a sci-fi term.
The human eye cannot see the spirit world, just as we cannot see wind is the point that Jesus is making here. But the wind is obviously there because we feel it blow, we see the trees move, we see the clouds move, this kind of thing. So wind, even though you can't see it with your eyes, it's there. It's obviously there. It obviously exists. And the same thing is true of spirit. We can't see spirit, but spirit is obviously there, is the point that Jesus is making.
And then Nicodemus answered and said to Jesus, verse 9, how can these things be? You can just see the bewilderment in Nicodemus. He's just blown away by these things that Jesus is telling him here.
So this is just totally out of his experience, out of his experience and understanding of the Scripture there.
Verse 10, Jesus answered and said to him, and this is quite interesting, are you the teacher of Israel and do not know these things?
Notice the term that Jesus uses here. Are you the teacher of Israel? Not a teacher of Israel, but the teacher of Israel. What does that mean? And it is the. It is very specific in the Greek. Are you the teacher? Apparently, Nicodemus is a great rabbi himself, a great teacher. So renowned, in fact, that he is commonly known by reputation as the teacher of Israel. Maybe the smartest man in Israel at that time. And Jesus kind of gives him something to think about. Are you the teacher of Israel and do not know these things?
Verse 11, most assuredly, Jesus continuing here, most assuredly I say to you, we speak what we know and testify what we have seen. And you do not receive our witness or our testimony, as it could be translated there. Another question, I think I sent this out in the questions last night. Who is the we? Who's the we here that Jesus says?
It's capitalized, so the translators apparently think that this is referring to Jesus and the Father. But frankly, you read it and it's difficult for me to imagine the Father saying this. We speak what we know and testify what we have seen. That just doesn't sound like God the Father, at least to me. It does to you, but it does it to me. So I think the most logical explanation here, well another possibility is it may be referring to the disciples. Well, probably not, because again, he's only called five of them to this point. So I think the most logical answer, since Jesus has just called Nicodemus the teacher of Israel, meaning somebody who is supposed to be very knowledgeable of the Hebrew Scriptures, the books of the Old Testament, the messages of the prophets, and all of this, I think that probably what Jesus means here is that he is referring to himself along with all of the earlier prophets of the books of the Old Testament. Prophets like Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, who prophesied of these things, who prophesied of the kingdom of God. So he's including himself among that, and saying, We speak what we know and testify what we have seen. The prophets saw visions. Daniel saw the vision of the ancient of days and the Son of Man coming to him and being given an everlasting kingdom that would never be destroyed, but a clear prophecy of the kingdom of God. Isaiah, Ezekiel, others had prophecies of the kingdom of God and what that would be like. So I think Jesus is most likely here lumping himself in, including himself in, with the prophets who testified of the same things that Jesus is saying right here. And I think that's probably what is meant here, and that the other sages, Jesus says, We know and testify what we have seen, and you do not receive our witness. In other words, you don't believe it. So he's saying that Nicodemus and the other rabbis and teachers of Israel at that time did not understand those prophecies any more than they understood the rest of Jesus' teachings as well. Now, Nicodemus obviously will come to believe Jesus later, but Jesus is clearly challenging him about that. And thus, Jesus says, they do not receive our witness or our testimony. In other words, he didn't believe or did not understand what they were saying. So I think that's probably what is going on, and I think this makes sense in the context of what Jesus says next, which we see in verse 12.
In other words, Jesus is telling Nicodemus, I've told you the basics. The most basic things here that you as a teacher of Israel, the teacher of Israel, should know if you're such a great teacher. But if you don't understand these basic things, these earthly things, how are you going to understand it when I tell you the really difficult, the really challenging spiritual things?
I think that's the point that he's making right here.
And then, verse 13, Now, another of the questions I sent out last night is, what does this mean?
If Jesus is there in Jerusalem talking to Nicodemus, why is he saying that the Son of Man is in heaven? Is that some kind of weird Trinitarian thing going on here? What's this mean? Actually, it's pretty simple. In Greek, there is no punctuation. They don't use question marks. They don't use quotation marks.
They don't use periods at the end of sentences or anything like that.
John is writing this Gospel about 55 to 60 years after these events have happened. And Jesus is in heaven then, 60 years later. But he's clearly not when this conversation is going on here in A.D. 28. But why does Jesus even mention this here?
The answer is where he says that he came down from heaven. Here he's referring to his pre-existence in heaven, which we read all about. John documents here in the first chapter of John. His pre-existence in heaven with the Father because he was in heaven with the Father before he was born as a physical human being. Thus, he knows what he's talking about when it comes to heavenly things. He came down from heaven so he knows about those things in heaven. That's why he also said right before this, we speak and know and testify what we have seen. Because having been in heaven with God the Father, he knows what it's all about. Any questions on that before we shift gears here and go into another subject? Yes, Dave? I think another aspect of looking at that is that John was written in the 40s after Christ. That's right. So, maybe you looked at when John was writing that, and you looked at the time frame that that occurred. But Christ was in heaven, evidently, in Christ as possible.
Well, you said the 40s. You mean most people attribute John to 85 to 90 AD, somewhere along in there. John? Yeah, the book of John. Well, it is written after. Yeah, written after. Really, I think what is going on here is John is inserting a parenthetical thought to this. And again, Greek doesn't have punctuation for parenthetical thought. Actually, and you may want to note this in your harmony, the way we would punctuate it today more accurately would be like this. Verse 13 is not all one quote, but there should be a quotation mark here after heaven. And then the parenthetical thought, John explains, Jesus says, No one has ascended to heaven but he who came down from heaven. And then John later, when he writes his gospel, inserts, No one has come down but the Son of Man who is in heaven. Jesus Christ. That eliminates the problem and clears it up there just with the addition of those. With a recognition, this is a parenthetical insertion here. So hopefully that makes it clear to everybody. Clear? Okay, good. Alrighty. Yeah, Greek is where we run into...we'll come across other examples of this later, but again, Greek not having quotation marks, punctuation, nor does Hebrew for that matter. So translators have to interpret to a considerable amount who exactly is saying what, where a direct quote begins and ends, where it's a paraphrase, and so on. And it's a challenge, as we'll see as we come across some of these things and go through the Gospels. This is a classic one here. Hebrew not only doesn't have punctuation, it doesn't have vowels. Right, right. Yeah. I wasn't going to touch on that, but yeah, as Pat brings out, Hebrew does not even have vowels, for instance. If you spell my name, it would be S-C-T-T-S-H-L-Y, maybe or maybe not. So that is why there are considerable difficulties in translating sometimes. Another thing, if you actually go back and look at the ancient manuscripts, they didn't even put spaces between words. Think about that. You just got strings of letters run together, and some of the translation problems and errors we run into depends on interpretation again, where you break the words. Now, we do have 2,000 years of history with the New Testament and 4,000, 3,500 to 3,000 of Greek, the way the scholars have interpreted the text. And I think they're nearly always correct, but there are some places where there may be some errors in that because of that. So my hats are off to the translators. They do a remarkably good job considering what they're really working with there. It's a very different world then when these documents were written compared to what we have today. So good observation there. Yes, Dave, do you have another point?
I should probably mention at this point too that I'd actually originally planned to cover this in an entirely different way and ran out of space and time to do it. But hey, if anybody would like to give a sermon on it, please do. But there's been a lot of debate over what born-again means in our history as a church body. And the problem is I see it. It finally cleared up in my mind several years ago. And by the way, let me interject too. United has a very lengthy paper on born-again. And if you need a copy of it and you can't find it on the website, let me know. I'll be glad to forward it to you. But a problem we have had is we try to use one analogy or one metaphor to fit all aspects of a circumstance. And that's not a healthy way to do it because the simple fact you're using an analogy or metaphor is to make a specific point. Jesus Christ is using born-again to talk about a transition in our lives that is equivalent to being born. It is that huge to be born of spirit when we receive God's spirit at baptism in the laying on of hands. And then have a lifetime of growth and development. And then through God's spirit working within us. And that ultimately leads to the second part of what Christ mentioned, being born of spirit. Being born literally as a spirit being. The problem is John, for instance, in 1 John 3, I think, talks about, beloved, we are now the children of God.
How do you reconcile that? Well, they're making different points. In each are equally valid. Yes, but Jesus is using the analogy of physical birth being like a spiritual birth, or actually vice versa. For John, 1 John 3, is talking about we are now the children of God and it doesn't yet appear what we shall be like. But we know that when he does appear, we will be like him. So John is using the analogy of us being children now in the sense that we are spiritually maturing toward adulthood. Paul, in Romans 8, I believe it is, uses the analogy of the Roman, a formal Roman ceremony.
It's translated adoption in the King James, and maybe even in the New King James. That's a bad terminology. We're not adopted as God's sons. The term that Paul uses is sonship. And basically what that meant is that when a son reached legal age, which was typically around 2021, in that Roman culture, this is not Jewish culture, this is a Roman culture.
Paul is writing to the Romans, so the Romans would have understood this. That a son wasn't really considered a legal heir until he reached an age of maturity. And there was a formal ceremony acknowledging him as an adult with full rights as an heir.
And the point Paul is using in that analogy is the same thing happens with us. Yes, we are heirs now, but we haven't received the inheritance. We're not fully legal heirs until the resurrection, when we do become fully part of the family of God. Paul uses the analogy we touched on earlier about baptism. Baptism is another analogy or metaphor. We go down into a watery grave and we die, and our sins are left there, and the old man is left there, and then we come up as a new man, as a new creation.
All of these are different metaphors, different analogies, the biblical writers use to teach us spiritual lessons. Any one of those analogies doesn't cover the whole story. They all cover different aspects of our growth and maturation, and our ultimate conversion as spirit beings, and our inheritance as the sons and daughters of God and God's family.
So the problem is when we try to make all of those circumstances fit in one particular metaphor, and it just doesn't work. So yes, yes, Dave. I think that, from my understanding, that's the standard of what that word born is, and it's the word from now. Right, right. The essence can mean that all of the pre-faith, this part, precisely, yeah, could be accepted, gestated, and heard.
Right, right. Yeah, good point, and there's excruciating detail on our bannerboard against study paper about that. And I actually started to include a lot of that, but didn't want to get bogged down in a lot of detail. And another issue, frankly, is Joseph and Nicodemus, excuse me, Jesus and Nicodemus weren't speaking in Greek. So they did not use the term, you know, John does, but they're speaking in Hebrew, and John is translating into Greek.
So what specific Hebrew or Aramaic terms they would have used, I'm not sure. So that is one reason why I decided not to approach this from a lot of detail study of Greek words. Yes, they're very important.
Don't discount me there. And what Dave said is very true. It's talking about the whole process there, which we didn't properly understand many years ago. So again, if you want that paper, let me know, and I'll be glad to email it to you, I'll give you the link to it there. Any other questions about any of this before we shift gears here? Okay, good deal. Well, let's continue on here. So let's pick up here just a couple of good memory scriptures here. If we get into some discussions with some friends or co-workers here about subjects of heaven or hell or whatever, this is a very good scripture to use here.
John 3 and verse 13, No one has ascended to heaven but he who came down from heaven. So do we go to heaven when we die? Of course not. Jesus himself says quite clearly, no one has ascended to heaven. A couple of other scriptures you may want to write down to tie in with this.
Acts 2, verses 29 and 34. This is Peter. You may recognize the words from his sermon there on Pentecost. Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.
And skipping down to verse 34, For David did not ascend into the heavens. So if King David, who is the author of many of the Psalms, the most beloved character, maybe other than Moses in Israelite history, didn't go to heaven, who does? And also Acts 13, verse 22, what Paul says about David, referring back to the Old Testament, And when God had removed Saul, he raised up for them David as king, to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do all my will.
So if David, a man after God's own heart, did not go to heaven, shouldn't that tell us something about that teaching? So you can forget all these ideas. David didn't go to heaven, Moses didn't go to heaven, Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, no one went to heaven other than Jesus the Messiah. So that idea of going to heaven actually came out of Greek mythology. They are not out of the Bible, and it got pawned off on and accepted by a compromised Christianity considerably later on after this.
With that background, let's pick up something else in John 3 and verse 14. Any questions about that before I shift gears yet again? There are a lot of topics to cover in here. We'll talk about the next aspect of what Jesus says here. John 3 and verse 14, And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. And this is a very striking Rimes by Jesus himself. Again, we've talked about different Gospel writers using the method of Rimes here.
And here is one by Jesus himself. He's referring to an incident in the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness after the Israelites left Egypt. And let's refer back to that in Numbers 21 and verses 4 through 9.
We're getting tired of this manna here. So the moral of the story is, be careful what you say about God, because as we see here, it may come back to bite you, literally. Verse 6, So the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and many of the people of Israel died. And verse 7, we get to the point of Jesus' Rimes here. Therefore the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Eternal and against you.
Pray to the Eternal that he take away the serpents from us. So Moses prayed for the people. And the Eternal said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole, and it shall be that every one who is bitten, when he looks to it, shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole, and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, and he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived. Now, you might say, I've used this term before, a Rimes is looking back to something. This isn't a real word, but I talk about a Zeamer.
Rimes backwards is something that looks forward. And this is what this is. It's a Zeamer, you might say, looking forward to something that would come in the future. So the bronze serpent on a pole is, you might say, a Zeamer, that looks forward, pointing forward to Jesus Christ Crucifixion. And that is the point that Jesus makes here, without saying explicitly that, as the Israelites were saved from death by looking to this brass serpent on the pole that Moses had made, that we are saved from death by looking to our Savior on a pole.
To him, being crucified on a wooden beam to take on himself the death penalty that we deserved for her sins. So he says, in other words, that he, the Son of Man, must be lifted up, as indeed happens in crucifixion. You're lifted up on a pole off the ground and crucified so that we might have life. And be saved from death as the Israelites were saved from death. So continuing back here in John 3 and verse 14, So again, the Israelites had to believe that looking at that serpent on the pole would save them from the snake bite.
And we have to believe when we look to and look to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to receive his gift of salvation as well. There is no other way to be saved than that method. And then we come to... well, actually, any questions before I shift gears yet again? There's a lot of different subjects packed into this portion here. Okay, so now we come to one of the Bible's best known verses and also one of its most profound verses that we probably have memorized. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
And there's so much to say about this. First of all, who does it say God loves? To the Jews of that day, what was their conception of God? They thought that God only loved them. We are the chosen people. God is our God, not the God of the goyim, not the God of the Gentiles. He was their God and no one else's. So for Jesus to say something like this, that God loved the world, that was blasphemous as far as they were concerned.
Also, it doesn't say that God loves only one nation, the Jewish people. Or that he loves only good people. Or that he loves only those who love him. No, it says that God loves the whole world, everyone. And because of that, he gave his only begotten Son. Now this part where it says whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life is where some people get the idea.
I'm going to shift gears again here. This is where a lot of people get the idea that all a person has to do is to believe in Jesus and he is saved. At that point, it ties in with the wrong idea of born again. We talked about the true biblical definition of born again. But the common view of born again is once you receive Jesus into your heart, you are born again. You are a new creation. And there's some elements of truth to that, but a lot of error as well. The dangerous aspect of that is that people extrapolate from that, that all you have to do is believe to be saved.
Therefore, this is where the idea of once saved, always saved comes from. Once you have accepted Jesus, nothing is going to affect your salvation from that point forward. That's all you have to do. If you've ever seen some of these little tracts that people pass out here and there, that's what they say. You just read these verses and then at the end you pray and tell God you accept Christ as your Savior and your Savior from that point forward.
Well, is that all there is to it? Well, let's look at a few other passages that show there's considerably more to it than just that. As the Apostle James points out, just believing is pointless, worthless, unless it's backed up by action and obedience. James 2, verses 19 through 22. You believe that there is one God. You do well. But notice this, even the demons believe and they tremble because of that. So he goes on to explain that faith, that belief and trust in God and obedience go hand in hand.
Verse 20 says, but do you want to know, oh foolish man, that faith without works is dead. Was not Abraham, our father, justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works? And by works, faith was made perfect. And verse 23, and the Scripture was fulfilled, which says, Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God.
You see then, his conclusion, that a man is justified by works and not by faith only. So James is explaining that works of obedience as a result of our faith is what maintains our relationship with God. And what does that do? It leads us to greater faith and greater obedience, as God requires for salvation.
Another clear Scripture, Matthew 7, verse 21. I'm just going to run through these fairly quickly here. Matthew 7, verse 21. Jesus Christ says, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, or the kingdom of God, is what he's talking about here. But he who does the will of my Father in heaven. So Jesus says that just acknowledging him as master, saying, Lord, Lord, doesn't cut it.
That to enter the kingdom of God, we have to do the will of God. Not our will, but God's will, to receive that gift of salvation. Another one, Matthew 19, 16 and 17. A well-known passage where a young man comes to Jesus and asks what he has to do to receive eternal life.
Now behold, one came to Jesus and said to him, Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? And Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good? No one is good but one that is God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments. And I won't read the rest of it, but the young man says, Which ones? And Jesus Christ names off several of the Ten Commandments, but also other commandments.
From the Torah. There, like, Love your neighbor as yourself, which isn't one of the Ten Commandments. So God requires obedience to His commandments for us to receive His gift of salvation as well. Another condition, we'll cover two more very quickly here. Mark 16, in verse 16, we mentioned this earlier. He who believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned. So we see here that baptism is a requirement for salvation. And not just baptism itself, but baptism part of the ceremony is the laying on of hands to receive God's Spirit from one of God's ministers, so that you can have that Spirit working within you to be converted and to grow and to develop spiritually through that power within us.
And a final one, we'll cover Matthew 10, in verse 22, after all of these things, after faith, after obedience to God, after doing the will of God, after being baptized and receiving God's Spirit. Jesus also tells us, he who endures to the end will be saved. So you have to endure to the end. You can't go through those first steps and then stop at some point. You have to endure to the end to receive God's gift of salvation.
Just run through these pretty quickly to show that there's a lot more to belief in faith in Jesus Christ than just belief in faith. Yes, David? I think that goes along very well with Revelation 3, verse 11, where you're instructed to hold that family, you have that romance with your friends, so that they can begin to walk, so it's not absolutely guaranteed upon you.
Yeah, Revelation 3, 11, let no one take your crown. Yes, we can lose our crown. We can lose salvation. Therefore, not careful if we're not doing what God says here. And these are just some. There's probably others. These are just the ones that I jotted down here. So, any question before we shift gears again here?
Okay, now we'll go back to John 3, verse 16, and let's analyze this, go into this in some detail here. It is a very, very important passage. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, would have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
Where to start with this? Well, one place we could start is the name of Jesus Himself, or Yeshua in Hebrew, which means Yah, one of the names of God. Yeshua, God saves, or God's salvation there. That is the whole purpose of Jesus coming to earth, to provide the way of salvation.
First, through coming as a physical human being to offer His life as a sacrifice for all sin and for all time. And then coming again, and a second coming, to open the way of salvation to everyone who is alive at that time, and ultimately through the second resurrection to everyone who has ever lived there. So that is His whole purpose and coming to earth, both kinds.
Let's analyze this concept now for God so loved the world. For a few minutes, in light of something I brought up a couple of studies ago, the four key questions for us as we read God's Word. Namely, what does this teach us about the nature and character of God? What does this teach us about the way God interacts with His people and mankind?
What does this mean for your relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ? And what does this teach us about Satan, the adversary of God and mankind? And again, we'll skip the last one since Satan isn't directly mentioned here or discussed. Let's go to the other three and for sake of time, we'll lump all of these questions together.
What does this teach us about the nature and character of God? How He interacts with His people and the world? And what does it mean for our relationship with Him? We'll lump all of these together here in one discussion. We've long taught that there are two basic ways of life.
The way of give or the way of love, the outgoing of love, and the way of get or selfishness. Self-oriented. It really does boil down to those two basic motivations in life. The way of giving and the way of getting. There, one reflects God the Father and Jesus Christ, and the other reflects Satan and mankind under Satan's influence.
Let me ask you a question just to think about this. What do you value more than anything? What is your most valuable thing that you own or possess or desire to possess? And a second question is, what are you willing to pay for it? What's most valuable to you and what are you willing to pay for it?
Because the value of something is established by, frankly, what we're willing to pay for it. So what's it worth to you? What's your most valuable possession? Maybe it's your house, maybe your car, big screen TV, maybe your children, maybe your spouse. There's a conversation that happens in our house that goes something like this, that I'll be down working at my computer.
I hear Connie coming down the stairs behind me and she'll say, Ah, you are so handsome! You are so smart! Oh, I love you so much! And I say, why, thank you! I love you too! And the response I get back is, I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to Jake! So, for some people, you can tell what their most valuable possession is. And I can handle that.
I've learned to handle that. But what's the most valuable thing to God? What is most valuable to God? Well, the answer is right here that we read, For God so loved the world. So, what's the most valuable thing to God? It's the world. Not the physical, literal world in which we live, but he's talking about the people in it. The people, everyone. Again, not just those who love him, not just the good people, but everyone. Everyone, because that's who his plan encompasses, ultimately there. So, we are what is most valuable, most precious to God.
And, of course, as I mentioned, you learn the value of something by what you're willing to pay for it. And what price did God pay for the world? As we see here, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son. He gave the thing that was most valuable to him for what he loved. That was his divine companion that he shared eternity with before Jesus came in the flesh as a physical human being. That's what we're being told here. And that is why God is a God of love, because he gave what was most valuable to him for what he loved most, which is us.
He did that because he's a God of love. Let's look at a few verses here. 1 John 4, verses 8 and 16. Both tell us clearly that God is love. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. And verse 16, he repeats it. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him. I won't comment on that, but just to point out, this sums up what God is. God is love. That is his character. That is his motivation. That is what he is. That sums him up. Not only did he give Jesus the Christ for us, but let's look at it another way.
What does he promise us? What does he want to give us? Because he loves us. That's a whole sermon in itself, easily. I'll focus in on just a few passages, Revelation 21, verse 7. He tells us, He who overcomes shall inherit all things. And I will be his God, and he shall be my Son. Inherent all things. What does that mean? What does that mean? Actually, we find that defined over in Hebrews 2, verses 6-8. This is quoting from Psalm 8, verses 4-6.
And it tells us here, but one testifying in a certain place, talking about Psalm 8, saying, What is man that you are mindful of him, or the Son of man that you take care of him? You have made him a little lower than the angels, where again flesh, not spirit, like the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor, and set him over the works of your hands, talking about God gave Adam and Eve dominion over the earth.
The Garden of Eden told them to dress it and to keep it. God gave dominion to mankind from the very beginning. You set him over the work of your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet. Mankind's feet, in other words. For in that, it's elaborated on here, for in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him. In other words, yes, God has promised this, but the promise, the inheritance, hasn't been given yet.
Hasn't happened yet. It's going to, but not yet. So, all things here means that there is literally nothing that we are not going to inherit. That God has not created to give us as his sons and daughters. And that means not just this physical earth, but the entire universe. The entire universe. Very interesting passage back in Deuteronomy 4, verse 19. And I'm just breaking into the thought here, but Moses writes about the sun, the moon, and the stars.
All the hosts of heaven, everything we see up in the night sky. Notice what he says about what we see in the night sky. Which the eternal your God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage.
God has given the entire universe to mankind, is what this is saying right here. So, God the Father not only gave for us the thing that was most precious and valuable to him, his only begotten son, Jesus Christ. But he also plans to give his entire creation to us as an inheritance, as his sons and his daughters. He is giving us everything. He's giving us eternal life, that wonderful gift. But he's also, as we talked about earlier, giving us glorified spirit bodies, immortal and eternal, so that we'll be able to enjoy and to use that inheritance to its fullest. And if we are going to inherit all things like this, then what does that say about the kind of bodies that God is going to give us?
If we're going to inherit red giants, huge stars, millions of times the mass of our sun, that burn at temperatures in the millions of degrees, what does that say about what we will be like then to be able to oversee and to utilize and to assume ownership of that inheritance? It's something that's really, truly mind-boggling. Truly mind-boggling.
Another question for us is, we talked about what was most valuable to God the Father. What was or is the most valuable thing to Jesus Christ? The Son. And the answer is the same. It's us. It's us. What did he give up that was valuable to him for us? Let's look at Philippians 2 and verses 5 through 8. This is from the English Standard version.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. Who, though he was in the form of God, he was God, in other words, as John 1 tells us, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. That's what this is talking about. Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God as a thing to be grasped, to be tightly held onto, is what the Greek means there. But he emptied himself of that divinity that he had as God by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
So what this is telling us, a very profound passage, that Jesus Christ gave up everything that he had with God as God, the glory, the power, the divinity, the majesty and the might that he had as one who could speak and the universe springs into existence, who could create this earth and all the plants, the mountain ranges, the oceans, the fish, the birds, every animal and human beings, that he gave all of that up.
He emptied himself of that power and that divinity to come to earth out of his love for us and out of his desire that many sons and daughters be brought to glory. So both the Father and the Son gave what was most precious, most valuable to them because of their love for us. And you can't give anything more than what they have already given and promised and will yet give in the future.
It just can't be done. None of us can come remotely close to giving what they have given and what they have promised for us. So this is the nature of God the Father and of Jesus Christ. This is how they interact with us as their people, the called ones, the chosen, the faithful ones, as we heard in the sermon last week, and with all of humankind. And this is the kind of people that they want us to become. That's the implication of this for us.
They want us to become that kind of people there and how we deal with others. And we could spend many hours going on and on with the lessons and implications of this that we don't have time to because we need to conclude this section today. But I hope this gives us some things to think about when we read this passage. That God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. And these are beings of infinite love, greater than we can fully imagine or comprehend. So don't ever take that lightly. Continuing in verse 18, there's a short few verses here to wrap this up. But we see something else here, too. I'd like to leave you with that side of the coin because it is so wonderful and so awesome and so positive.
But there's another side to the coin, too. It's two sides of the same coin. Verse 18 tells us that God... This is also important to understand about the nature and character of God, that He is a God of love, but He is also a God of judgment. You can't have one without the other, as it tells us here. He who believes in Him, in the Son, Jesus Christ, is not condemned. But He who does not believe is condemned already, because He has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
And this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. As I mentioned before, light versus darkness is one of the great themes of the Gospel of John. The word light appears sixteen times in John's Gospel. And spiritual dark or darkness is a contrast, appears a number of times as well. And this is a sad commentary, though, on human nature, the human condition that men love darkness rather than light.
And they do that because, it says here, their deeds are evil. Their deeds are evil. In verse 20, For everyone practicing evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. Why is that? Well, because light reveals truth, reveals the true condition of things. It reveals what is wrong, it reveals what is sinful, and what is contrary to God and his ways. And because of that, some people don't want to come anywhere near the light, because it's going to be exposed what they are to themselves, and it's going to be exposed to others what they are as well.
So they have to stay in darkness. And this is the attitude of Satan the devil and his way, of staying in the darkness rather than seeking the light. In verse 21, But he who does, that word can also mean lives or practices, he who lives or practices the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen that they have been done in God.
So in other words, if you know the truth, if you live the truth, living in the light, excuse me, you are then living in the light, the light of God, and his light has been revealed to you, and you live in that light that God has revealed to us. You don't need to live in and hide in the darkness any longer. We are called to be children of light, not children of darkness. So we'll wrap it up there then. The conclusion of this section. Any questions? I know there's a lot to absorb here. A tremendous amount, very heavy duty material. Yes, Dave?
I think that what you just read really shows that the need is more than just having a feeling of the people. Those last words have shown that the needs have to go along with it. Exactly, yes. Yes, believing is not enough. Deeds have to go with it, as it says here. You have to live the way of light and of truth. It has to become the way of life for us once we understand God's truth. Good comment. How many of us can save the way of life?
Yes, Pat. Actions speak louder than words. That's very true. Actions show the light. You can say all you want. You can say, Lord, Lord, as Christ said earlier, as we quoted. That doesn't cut the mustard. That doesn't cut it there. You have to do what he says. You have to do the will of God. Okay, we'll wrap it up there and pick it up again next time.
