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Jesus and Nicodemus

John 3:1-17

Good News Translation (GNT)

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  1  There was a Jewish leader named
   Nicodemus, who belonged to the party of the
   Pharisees.
  2  One night he went to Jesus and said to him,
   "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher sent
   by God. No one could perform the miracles
   you are doing unless God were with him."   3  Jesus answered, "I am telling you the truth: no
   one can see the Kingdom of God without
   being born again." (a)
  4  "How can a grown man be born again?"
   Nicodemus asked. "He certainly cannot enter
   his mother's womb and be born a second
   time!"
  5  "I am telling you the truth," replied Jesus,
   "that no one can enter the Kingdom of God
   without being born of water and the Spirit.
  6  A person is born physically of human parents,
   but is born spiritually of the Spirit.
  7  Do not be surprised because I tell you
   that you must all be born again. (b)
  8  The wind blows wherever it wishes; you hear
   the sound it makes, but you do not know
   where it comes from or where it is going.
   It is like that with everyone who is born of the
   Spirit."
  9  "How can this be?" asked Nicodemus.
10  Jesus answered, "You are a great teacher in
   Israel, and you don't know this?
11  I am telling you the truth: we speak of what we
   know and report what we have seen, yet none
   of you is willing to accept our message
12  You do not believe me when I tell you about
   the things of this world; how will you ever
   believe me, then, when I tell you about
   the things of heaven?
13  And no one has ever gone up to heaven
   except the Son of Man, who came down from
   heaven.
14  As Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole
   in the desert, in the same way the Son of Man
   must be lifted up,
15  so that everyone who believes in him may
   have eternal life
16  For God loved the world so much that he gave
   his only Son, so that everyone who believes in
   him may not die but have eternal life.
17  For God did not send his Son into the world to
   be its judge, but to be its saviour.

    Footnotes
    John 3:3 again; or from above.
    John 3:7 again; or from above.

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Commentary taken from
'The Applied New Testament Commentary'
(Kingsway)

Being Born Again of the Spirit

     John 3:1-17

Nicodemus was a Pharisee, and also he was a member of the main Jewish religious committee called the Sanhedrin, who exercised authority in all Jewish religious matters.

Nicodemus was a properly educated Jew, who was himself a teacher. But Nicodemus had seen Jesus' miracles, and knew that Jesus was a special teacher or Rabbi (Jewish religious teacher) who had come from God, and he wanted to learn more from Him.

Jesus knew that Nicodemus was sincerely seeking to obey God and to enter the kingdom of heaven. Jesus told Nicodemus what he needed to know; namely, that a man can enter the kingdom of heaven only by being born again.

Nicodemus needed a new heart, a new spiritual power that would change his inward nature and make him acceptable before God. Since bodily rebirth is not possible, it seemed impossible to Nicodemus.

Jesus then repeated what He said and added that to enter the kingdom of God one must be born of water and the Spirit.

Baptism with water also means the dying of our old sinful self. Unless our old self dies, we cannot receive a new self. When a person repents and believes in Jesus, God enters that person and gives him new spiritual life.

That person is then born again of the Spirit. Just as physical life is impossible without being born of a woman, so spiritual life is impossible without being born of the Spirit.

Imagine what Nicodemus thought when he heard Jesus say these words. Jesus told him, "You cannot enter the kingdom of God the way you are. You are still controlled by your sinful nature. You need to repent, to be cleansed, to die.

And then you must be completely reborn spiritually through the power of God's Holy Spirit. Just as we were not physically born through our own efforts, so we cannot be spiritually reborn through our own efforts.

Only through faith in Jesus can we be spiritually reborn. We can hear the wind, but we cannot tell where it has come from or where it is going. In the same way, natural worldly men can see and hear a person who has been born of the Spirit, but they cannot understand from where his spiritual life and power have come.

Jesus asked Nicodemus, "How can you not understand these things? You claim to know about God. You should know that you cannot come to God by your own strength.

"You speak only of what you think about God, but we speak of what we know. We have seen and experienced these spiritual things. We don't merely have opinions about these things; we have certain knowledge".

God sent poisonous snakes among the Jews in the wilderness, because they had been grumbling against Him. God told Moses to make a snake from bronze and put it on a pole so that all the people could see it. Those who looked at the bronze snake were not harmed by the poisonous snakes.

Just as Moses lifted up the bronze snake, so Jesus had to be lifted up on the cross. Jesus gives eternal life to all who believe in Him. To "believe" has a very deep meaning. It means to believe fully, deeply. It means to depend totally on Jesus, to trust in Him and not on oneself.

Everything begins with the love of God for the world. He loves us so much that He gave up His only Son in order to give everyone, the opportunity to be saved.

His (Jesus) purpose in coming was to save us. If He had not come, all men would have been condemned. The sun shines in order to give light; but at the same time, it also creates shadows. Just as the sun causes shadows to appear, so the light of Jesus reveals unbelief and sin, and condemns it

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