Study Notes 4-8-12

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3:22-24 After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing. [23] John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized [24] (for John had not yet been put in prison).

  • Here we see that the narrative has moved away from Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus and onto another event/situation in the ministry of Christ.
  • Part of what we see here is that there are dual baptisms going on here.  The ministry of John and the ministry of Christ are overlapping to a degree.
  • One thing we should also note is that Christ Himself wasn’t baptizing anyone, but that it was His disciples that were baptizing (John 4:2).  John Piper says that he suspects this is for the same reason that Paul didn’t baptize too many people because of potential errors in the thinking of the new Christians.  He didn’t want people to think that if they didn’t get baptized by Christ it wasn’t the “real thing” etc.

3:25-26 Now a discussion arose between some of John’s disciples and a Jew over purification. [26] And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him.”

  • What a fascinating thing to interject here.  All of a sudden the disciples of John were arguing about purification and then in verse 26 they seem to move on and start talking about the ministry of Christ and how people seem to be leaving John’s ministry and going to Jesus’ ministry.  So it leaves you scratching your head because you might wonder, “what in the world does purification have to do with anything? And why didn’t they finish talking about the discussion over purification?”  It just seems like an odd piece of information to stick in there all by itself.
  • John Piper has some good ideas on why this is so.  He thought that perhaps there was a confusion over whether or not John’s baptism was “working” since all these people were getting baptized and then going over to Jesus’ ministry.  You have a purification issue John! Or so they seemed to be saying…
  • Piper says that there are parallels between this and what John writes in Rev. 21:9 which says in the latter part of the verse (an angel speaking to John), “‘Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.’”  The church will experience the purification work of the perfect Lamb.  Piper also cites Eph 5:25-27 which says, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”
  • So John doesn’t answer the purification issue directly but indirectly by saying that the bride of Christ will be purified by the bridegroom who is the perfect and spotless sacrificial lamb.  The marriage picture is the same – we die for our wives, we love them, we sanctify them in the Word.

3:27-29 John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. [28] You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ [29] The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete.

  • Verse 27 is almost a rebuke – he’s basically saying, “nothing that is happening now wouldn’t be happening if it weren’t in God’s will and if He hadn’t ordained it to be happening.”
  • Note “who stands and hears him” is significant.  This is the voice of the Lord.  This is the life-giving power of God in audible form.  This is the voice that called out “Lazarus!” from the tomb.  This is the voice that John had been waiting for!
  • “No body would be going to Jesus if heaven weren’t giving them to Jesus” Piper says.
  • Look at how incredibly happy John is that Christ is the one who is getting the glory, and this is causing him to “rejoice greatly.”  Let’s not miss this.  He is so happy because his ministry is coming to a close, and he’s so happy because that means that Christ’s ministry is about to bloom. Not only is he rejoicing, but his joy is “complete.”  John finds his ultimate purpose in his exaltation of Christ.  This is what makes him ultimately happy, ultimately joyful.

3:30 He must increase, but I must decrease.”

  • What an amazing statement.  Can you say and can I say truly, “He must increase, while I, PJ, must decrease.”   It is this decreasing that is giving him joy.  Jesus commands that we treasure Him over everything else in our lives.  Certainly His work on the cross and His perfect life demands this from us.
  • Piper paraphrases it this way, “When Jesus becomes more in the world and I become less in the world, my joy goes up.” Piper continues by saying that John’s response is “a joyful response to God’s sovereign self-exaltation.”
  • You see, for John the Baptist, his joy increased as Jesus’ ministry increased.  His joy increased as his own worldly value and ministry decreased.  The more it was more about Jesus the more joy he was going to have because that means that the bridegroom was coming, and what could be better for the bride!
  • We celebrate Easter today, I am reminded of Charles Wesley’s famous hymn ‘Come Thou Long Expected Jesus.’   There is a line in that hymn which mirrors the excitement that John expressed here, which calls Jesus the “Dear Desire of every nation” and the “Joy of every longing heart.”
  • You see, we need all of us, for Christ to increase in our lives and for us to decrease.  Paul recognized the same thing when he said “For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God” (1 Cor. 15:9) and again when he says, “So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth” (1 Cor. 3:7).
  • And Christ Himself understood this joy – that is why He was able to endure the cross and the shame.  As Hebrews 12:2 says, “…who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame…”
  • So how do we find real joy – and I mean real happy, thrilled, hair-raising joy – in Christ the way that John is describing here?   I would argue that in order for us to find real joy, life transforming joy in Christ we must learn to value Christ above all other things.  John understood the real value of Christ, and so he eagerly looked for Him and was thrilled that he could “decrease.”
  • The thinking goes something like this according to Christ, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field” (Matthew 13:44).
  • For John, everything he had, his entire life was wrapped up in this ministry and now it was leaving him, and what was his response?  He was thrilled!  Why?  Because he had already sold everything, he didn’t want or need followers, he wanted and needed Christ.  Christ was the object of supreme worth to him.  He had found his treasure. So when his disciples came to him with these issues of purification and of baptism and how some were leaving to go join Jesus, John’s reaction was one of joy.
  • Here’s how it applies to your life.  You have found Jesus.  But you may not be recognizing the fact that He is the only thing that truly valuable to you.  Oh sure, intellectually you understand that because its in the Bible that Jesus is good, and because He saved you and you’re a Christian and so on.  But is your life designed and structured around the fact that Jesus is THE most valuable thing in your life.  Have you sold off everything that gets between you and Christ?  Have do done everything to grasp that pearl of great price?  Or are you still reaching for the world’s brass ring?  When we internalize this truth and apply His supreme value to every aspect of our lives, we realize very quickly that we are idolatrous people.  We have lost our first love (Rev. 2:4).
  • Christ’s value in our lives is brought home to us this weekend by the remembrance of His suffering and of His victory over the grave.  I hope that we let these truths change us so that when we encounter people fleeing us, and life’s pleasantries falling away, we can still say with John, “this joy of mine is now complete!”

 

In summary: We must learn to make Christ the highest priority in our lives, because He is worth it.  He is infinitely worth it.  We must understand that He is a treasure that is far more valuable than any other idol demanding our attention.  He is more worthy than our friends.  He is more worthy than our spouse.  He is more worthy than our career.  He is more worth than our children and the taxicab service we’ve setup to drive them from activity to activity. Furthermore, when we make Him our first and most coveted object of desire and affection, we are promised that He will automatically take care of every other need we have (Matt. 7:7-10).  We need to start living our lives as if He was really the most important thing. 

 

Spurgeon’s Good Friday Prayer

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Kudos to Parris for passing this one along…magnificent prayer by C.H. Spurgeon

A GOOD FRIDAY PRAYER FROM CHARLES SPURGEON

Great God,
there was a time when we dreaded the thought of coming near to You,
for we were guilty and You were angry with us,
but now we will praise You
because Your anger is turned away and You comfort us.

Yes, and the very throne which once was a place of dread
has now become the place of shelter. I flee to You to hide me.

O bring us, we pray You, now near to Yourself.
Let us bathe ourselves in communion with our God.
Blessed be the love which chose us before the world began.
We can never sufficiently adore You for Your sovereignty,
the sovereignty of love which saw us in the ruins of the Fall,
yet loved us anyway.

We also bless You, O God, as the God of our redemption,
for You have so loved us as to give even Your dear Son for us.
He gave Himself, His very life for us
that He might redeem us from all iniquity and separate us unto Himself
to be His peculiar people, zealous for good works.

Never can we sufficiently adore free grace and undying love.
The wonders of Calvary never cease to be wonders,
they are growing more marvelous in our esteem
as we think of Him who washed us from our sins in His own blood.
Nor can we cease to praise the God of our regeneration
who found us dead and made us live,
found us at enmity and reconciled us,
found us loving the things of this world
and lifted us out of the muck and mire of selfishness and worldliness
in the love of divine everlasting things.

All our help must come from You.
Give back to the church its love, its confidence,
its holy daring, its consecration,
its generousness, its holiness.
Give back all it ever had and give it much more.
Take every member and wash his feet, sweet Lord, most tenderly,
and set us with clean feet in a clean road,
with a clean heart to guide them, and bless us as You will in a divine fashion.

Bless us, our Father,
and let all the churches of Jesus Christ partake of care and tenderness.
Walking among the golden candlesticks trim every lamp and make every light,
even though it burns feebly now, to shine out gloriously through Your care.

Now bless the sinners. Lord, convert them.
O God, save men, save this great city, this wicked city, this slumbering dead city.
Lord, arouse it, arouse it by any means, that it may turn to its God.
Lord save sinners all the world over, and let Your precious Word be fulfilled.
And now to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost be glory forever and ever. Amen.

The Tabernacle: Visual Theology

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A few months back I posted some information about the Temple Complex, so when I saw that Pastor Tim Challies had released an info-graphic on the Tabernacle, it occurred to me that you all would like to check this out.

The Picture is part of a series called ‘Visual Theology’ and is really helpful for understanding some of the great truths of God and Scripture.

Click Here to download the picture or see below.  Enjoy!

PJW

Resurrection Rolls

~ pjwenzel ~ Leave a comment

If you are looking for a fun way to illustrate the resurrection of Christ with your children, here’s something we’ve had fun doing this year!

This is a recipe for Resurrection Rolls and it has a good teaching moment attached. Basically the summary of this project is: “…have the kids help make these rolls and talk about taking sinless Jesus (marshmallow), anointing Him in oils (butter) and incense (cinnamon), wrapping Him in the shroud (crescent roll), and then placing Him in the tomb (oven). It’s so fun to see everyone open their “empty tombs” at the table.”

Enjoy!

Study Notes 4-1-12

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3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

  • Immediately following the Old Testament account of salvation, Jesus turns the timetables forward and declares that God’s love for His people hasn’t changed since the days of Moses.  He has prepared a way of salvation, for He is a loving and patient God and not willing that any man should perish.
  • What has become, however, a sad commentary in our current day is that many have distorted this verse and taken it out of context.  Jesus tells us explicitly that in order to be born again, one must be born of “Water and the Spirit” – not of any human work (“lest any man should boast”).   And yet here it seems as though Jesus is saying that He has died for the entire world, and that all we need to do is believe.  Some have taken this verse (incorrectly) to mean that on our own we can make a decision on whether or not we want to believe in Jesus.  Well, we certainly make that decision, but not until we are born again – otherwise we would never desire to choose to believe.  For it is God alone working in the hearts of men, who melts those hearts, who changes those spots, who does a supernatural, miraculous work in our lives in order for us to see the majesty and great value of Christ.

3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

  • In other words, this is not the time of judgment.  That time is coming when Christ comes back, but Jesus didn’t come down to judge the world at this time, but rather to bring salvation and usher in a new covenant with His people.
  • We are so used to thinking of Jesus as a savior, that sometimes we forget that ultimately He will be our judge, and in fact will judge all creation.  We can lose site of the holiness of His character and the reaction that garnered in those who were near Him.  His holy character brought out a sense of reverence and fear in the disciples (Mark 4:41; Luke 5:8), and so it is natural that we hear Him saying here that He didn’t come to judge the world at this time.
  • Note especially 1 Peter 4:5 which says, “but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.”  The “living” are those who have been born again to new life, and the “dead” are those who are spiritually dead.  Make no mistake, every man, whether spiritually alive or spiritually dead, will face the judgment of Christ when He comes back in glory.

3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

  • We know from our own experiences that there are some who will never believe.  And those who do not place their faith and trust in Jesus Christ are “condemned already.”  As MacArthur notes, “while the final sentencing of those who reject Christ is still future, their judgment will merely consummate what has already begun.”
  • I will offer a paraphrase here based on what I understand Him to be saying: “every human being is born already condemned and if you don’t believe in Me then you will remain condemned.”

3:19-21 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. [20] For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. [21] But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

  • Jesus pulls no punches here and explains why it is that they will be judged, because “their works were evil.”  Most people we talk to on a day-to-day basis would probably tell us (if they are non-believers) that they are basically “good people.”  Jesus blows this notion up.  There are no “good people.” We have all gone astray (Is. 53:6) and no one does anything that is truly “good” in the eyes of the Holy God we serve (Roman 3:12).
  • But Jesus takes it a step further, He says that not only have men done evil, He says that men “loved the darkness” – we actually love our sin more than we love God.  And this is why we need a supernatural change of heart, and why no man can simply believe upon Jesus without the help of God to open our eyes and get us to believe in the first place.  Paul concurs with Christ in Romans 3:11 when he says, “…no one understands;            no one seeks for God.”  And in Ephesians 2:2 we read that as unbelievers we “…followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.”  In John 8:44a Jesus says of those who are unbelievers, “you are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires.”
  • Sproul says, “Man’s natural tendency is to flee from the presence of God and to have no affection for the biblical Christ. Therefore, if you have in your heart today any affection for Christ at all, it is because God the Holy Spirit in His sweetness, in His power, in His mercy, and in His grace has been to the cemetery of your soul and has raised you from the dead. So you are now alive to the things of Christ and you rejoice in the kingdom into which He has brought you.”
  • Wiersbe puts it this way, “It is not ‘intellectual problems’ that keep people from trusting Christ; it is the moral and spiritual blindness that keeps them loving the darkness and hating the light.”
  • C.H. Spurgeon put it this way, “there is no man so ignorant that he can claim a lack of intellect as an excuse for rejecting the gospel…it is not any lack or deficiency there (in the mind).  The nature of man has become so debased and depraved that it has become impossible for him to Christ without the power of God the Holy Sprit.”
  • It is evident by this passage that if it were not for a supernatural work of God in our hearts, we would never choose God.  That God the Holy Spirit must act in regeneration and then give us the gift of faith before we would ever choose Christ.  This is because we always choose our strongest inclination at the time (this is the “will”, it is the “mind choosing” as Jonathan Edwards would say), and our strongest inclination is always the darkness/sin until the Holy Spirit brings us to the light.
  • These good works that we carry out are said to be “in God” in verse 21 and this reminds us of what Paul says in Ephesians 2:10, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”  We know that our own good works are filthy rags before God (Is. 64:6), but that Christ works in us to perform good works for His glory.
  • The most important thing that I see laid out here by Christ is the nature of eternity and the coming judgment.  He begins the chapter by explaining how one might be born again – by supernatural operation of the Spirit.  Then He explains that He has authority from heaven to give this gift.  Furthermore, He says that there is no other way to see/enter the kingdom of heaven but by this supernatural work of the Spirit. Then He enumerates the second step of the salvation process (faith), as well as the role of the Son in the redemption of human souls.  So He explains then what humanity must do in order to partake in this salvation (trusting upon Him by faith), and reminds them in no uncertain terms that the wrath of God/His judgment lies on whomever does not trust in the Son for salvation (cf. 3:37).  Finally, He reminds us of our own inability to inherit the kingdom due to our wickedness and love of sin, and that this only occurs within the sovereign and providential framework of God’s work.
  • How do we respond to what Jesus is saying here?  We respond by recognizing the depth of our depravity and our sin, and the magnificence of the grace and glory of God.  Tomorrow when you have a moment, stop and realize how base and repugnant your thoughts and words are, how sinful your mouth has been, how worldly your passions have been and remind yourself of the extent to which Jesus has gone to redeem your soul.  What an amazing Father we have; so gracious, so patient and long-suffering.  We respond to this truth by throwing ourselves upon the mercy of Christ and running to the cross.  You may be a Christian who is haunted by sin, by things you simply cannot conquer, and the Devil wants to remind you of the depth of your sin.  Well simply agree with him, and say, “what of it?!  I have been forgiven.  My standing with God does not depend upon what I do or don’t do but upon the grace of almighty God who has saved me from this state of slavery.”  Indeed.  Praise God for His salvation.

 

In summary, how do we teach this to our children? 

Today we learned that Jesus came to the world to die for our sins.  We learned that on our own we would never desire to love Jesus, but instead we would keep sinning because we naturally love to sin more than we love Jesus.  But the Holy Spirit works in our hearts to soften our hearts and help us love Him.  Only with the help of the Holy Spirit are we able to love Jesus and accept His free gift of salvation.  We also learned that when Jesus came to earth 2000 years ago He didn’t come to judge people but to save them, however, when He comes back He will be ready to judge everyone – both those who believe in Him and those who do not believe in Him.

 

Parenting and Evangelizing: Mid-Week Articles

~ pjwenzel ~ Leave a comment

Here are a few great articles that I think many in our class would find interesting and helpful.

GALLOP SURVEY – there’s a lot of evangelism we need to do right here in our backyard!

How Eternity Shapes our Mundane – great post on Desiring God’s site for moms who are tired and face difficult times at home, while trying to keep an eternal perspective.

Watch Your Conjunctions in Parenting – Parris sent this along and its a good read on how we need to be careful with our words as parents.

Study Notes 3-25-12

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3:8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

  • We can’t control the Spirit just as we can’t control the wind.  Jesus once again illustrates God’s sovereign work in salvation – this time in a very tangible way.
  • It’s amazing to think that Jesus, who tells us here that no one knows where the wind comes from or where it goes, was the One who calmed the wind on the Sea of Galilee.  And, of course, the Spirit is not going to do anything that isn’t in perfect harmony with Christ’s mind and the Father’s plan from all eternity.

3:9-10 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” [10] Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?

  • The Lord is telling him that these truths are things that he should have known from close study of the Old Testament.  But Nicodemus was not a believer, nor did it seem he was much of a scholar (though that commentary might have been made about many of the ruling class of the Jews during Jesus’ day).
  • We ought to take this rebuke and apply it to our lives as Christians.  In Hebrews 5:11-6:1 Paul echoes a similar sentiment – to be mature as Christians.  We aren’t to be naïve.  And though you may not be a teacher of large groups of people, or part of the “ruling class”, we are all teachers of our children.  We are all rulers of our homes.  We are responsible to learn and to press forward toward maturity.

3:11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.

  • There’s a contrast being made here between the “we” that Jesus is saying and the “we” that Nicodemus used in verse 2.  Nicodemus was referring to some of his pals on the Sanhedrin Council, but Jesus is likely referring to Himself and His disciples – this probably included John the Baptist (MacArthur).

3:12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

  • This is part two of His rebuke.  First Jesus rebuked Him by inferring in verse 10 that he didn’t have an adequate understanding of the Old Testament prophets, and here he seems to be rebuking him for not being able to understand what He was showing him now.
  • This verse reminded me somewhat of what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:4, “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
  • It is evident that unless the Holy Spirit does a supernatural work in our lives, we’ll never be able to understand heavenly things.  RC Sproul explains and summarizes this section of scripture, “A Person must be changed by God; the disposition of his heart, which by nature does not want to do God’s bidding, must be altered by God the Holy Spirit.”

3:13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

  • This is Jesus simply reaffirming His deity.  He is the only one who has descended from heaven and the only one who has ascended into heaven.  It is an interesting statement.  It seems to me that He is first asserting that He has some amazing (heavenly) things to impart to the people of this world, and that here He is saying that He’s the only one qualified to impart those things.  It’s almost as if He’s saying, “there’s never been anyone like me who can tell you these things, and there never will be another like me.  I’m the only one who has ever come with this kind of authority straight from heaven.”

3:14-15 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, [15] that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

  • Here another shadow in the Old Testament is made clear to us.  In this case, Jesus is appealing to a story Nicodemus certainly would have known.  The story can be found in Number 21:5-9.
  • In this account, the people of Israel had just been delivered from the land of Egypt and because of their unbelief, we find them here in the midst of their 40-year wandering in the wilderness.  God sent poisonous snakes to plague them because of their grumbling, and Moses intercedes for them.
  • Interestingly enough, the snake eventually became the source of idol worship!  The ESV Study Bible notes say this, “The redness of copper suggested atonement (see 19:1–10), so symbolically it was well chosen for this occasion. Jesus compares his own death on the cross to the uplifted serpent (John 3:14–15). By the time of King Hezekiah of Judah (c. 715 B.C.), this copper serpent had become an object of worship among the Israelites and had to be destroyed (2 Kings 18:4).”
  • So, by the grace of God, they are given a way out of their troubles.  They have only to look upon the fiery serpent in faith and trust that by looking upon this poll they will be healed by God.
  • We also must look to the Lord upon the cross and come to Him with faith that He will heal the sickness of our sin and misery.  He alone grants us the opportunity to be healed of this sickness, and He alone is gracious and powerful enough to ensure that we are saved.
  • The result of the healing in this Numbers passage was a saved life, the result of the healing that Christ brings is Spiritual, and because it is spiritual it is eternal.  This is the first instance where John has mentioned eternal life.   It’s significant that Christ uses an Old Testament passage here to illustrate His point – in my opinion it further shames Nicodemus because it would have been a passage he would have been (hopefully) familiar with.

In summary, how do we teach this to our children? 

Today we learned that the Holy Spirit cannot be seen, and He operates in ways that we as humans cannot understand.  The same thing is true about being born-again – its God’s work in us and we can’t really fully understand it, but we trust the God has done it and we notice the change in our hearts.  We also talked about how we (as parents) are responsible for teaching our children the truths God has taught US in the Bible.  Lastly, we learned that humans have always been grumblers – just like the Israelites in grumbled and complained to Moses and God about their food, we also do the same thing don’t we?! On our own strength we will never be able to overcome this sinful nature, but must look to Jesus for redemption and salvation.  Once we have been born again/saved, God sends us the Holy Spirit to help us obey and please God even through trials.

3-18-12 Study Notes

~ pjwenzel ~ 1 Comment

3:1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

  • Not only was he a religious leader, but he was on the Sanhedrin Council; the powerful ruling body of the Jews which made civil, legal, and religious decisions (carried out sentences as well – everything except the death penalty).
  • When I think about a similar kind of historical politico/religious council as an example, I think of the Geneva Council during the time of Calvin, which acted as a sort of political-theocratic governing body.

3:2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

  • There are many aspects to this verse that need to be noted.  Firstly, we see that Nicodemus came to Christ at night…its said by many commentators that he was likely ashamed of being seen with Jesus.  Surely we ought to ask ourselves the question: Are we ashamed of Christ? Do we come to Him by night because you are afraid to ask the questions you have to ask?
  • The second thing is that Nicodemus says “we” here.  By “we”, he probably means ‘we on the Council know that you have to be from God.  We can tell that you must be from God…there’s a consensus building and we know that you must be from God.’
  • Also, they assume that because He is doing these miracles through the power of God…though later some of them would say that Jesus was doing His miracles through some kind of satanic power (John 8).

3:3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

  • When Jesus says that we must be born again, it means that the Spirit of God must bring us to Spiritual life.  He must raise us from the dead (Eph. 2:1-10) and unite us to life in (and with) Christ.  It is the Spirit who makes us alive, and it is life that comes from Christ/in Christ.  So what the Spirit is effectively doing is uniting us to Christ.
  • In order to really appreciate and/or understand what it means to be made spiritually “alive” to Christ, we must first understand the nature of being dead.  Dead men cannot see the kingdom of God according to Jesus.  Dead men cannot be made alive on their own either, as we will see in verse 5.
  • John Piper says that we have a very difficult time understanding ourselves and the depth of our sin in this spiritual deadness.  “No one knows the extent of his sinfulness. It is deeper than anyone can fathom…Our rebellion is so deep that we cannot detect or desire the glory of Christ in the gospel” says John Piper.  “Therefore, if we are going to be born again, it will rely decisively and ultimately on God.  His decision to make us alive will not be a response to what we as spiritual corpses do, but what we do will be a response to His making us alive.”
  • Certainly its important to realize our former state, for as Piper says, “We will never experience the fullness of the greatness of God’s love for us if we don’t see His love in relation to our former deadness.”

As we examine this mighty truth about our former state, it would be wise to look at a few other verses that give more context to this:

  • Colossians 2:13,14 says, “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”
  • Ephesians 2:1-10 says, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
  • Galatians 2:20 says,  “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
  • Romans 6:2 says, “By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?”

3:4 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?”

He didn’t understand what Jesus said because he was blind to the reality of the things Jesus was saying.  Dead men can’t understand the gospel because it is foolishness to them (1 Cor. 1).

3:5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

  • The first thing I want to address here is the meaning of the “water” here.  Calvin notes that “water” is really similar to the New Testament’s use of the word “wind”: “Accordingly, he employed the words Spirit and water to mean the same thing, and this ought not to be regarded as a harsh or forced interpretation; for it is a frequent and common way of speaking in Scripture, when the Spirit is mentioned, to add the word Water or Fire, expressing his power. We sometimes meet with the statement, that it is Christ who baptizeth with the Holy Ghost and with fire, (Matthew 3:11; Luke 3:16,) where fire means nothing different from the Spirit, but only shows what is his efficacy in us.”
  • To further illustrate the point, the ESV Study Bible notes make the point that, “Wind and Spirit translate the same Greek and Hebrew words.”  Indeed these are meant to convey the same concept.  Calvin certainly agrees with this when he summarizes, “By water, therefore, is meant nothing more than the inward purification and invigoration which is produced by the Holy Spirit.”
  • John Piper makes several good arguments as to why the word “water” here doesn’t refer to baptism, as some would suppose. He says that the words “spirit” and “water” refer to “a cleansing of the old and a creation of the new.”  Piper argues that even though we are a new creation, we still have the old man, the flesh, and therefore need that cleansing, “If the old human being, John Piper, were completely obliterated, the whole concept of forgiveness and cleansing would be irrelevant.  There would be nothing left over from the past to forgive or cleanse.”  “My guilt must be washed away.  Cleansing with water is a picture of that.”

3:6-7 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. [7] Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

  • Here our Lord enumerates on the contrast between that which is the flesh and that which is the Spirit, and what the differences are.  When He says “flesh” it is to mean the same type of “flesh” that Paul mentioned in Romans 7 – this is the human personality, the human will and mind/heart.
  • Just like a human being is in the flesh by God ordained means, so the Spirit creates in us a new creation, a spirit that was dead is now alive.  And this transformation can only be done by the Lord God omnipotent.  There is nothing in the creative process here that we contribute.  We are given faith and place that faith upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and we are saved.  The Spirit takes care of the rest!

3:8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

  • It’s amazing to think that Jesus, who tells us here that no one knows where the wind comes from or where it goes, was the One who calmed the wind on the Sea of Galilee.  And, of course, the Spirit is not going to do anything that isn’t in perfect harmony with Christ’s mind and the Father’s plan from all eternity.

3:9-10 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” [10] Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?

  • And here we find a stinging rebuke of Nicodemus.  The Lord is telling him that these truths are things that he should have known from close study of the Old Testament.  But Nicodemus was not a believer, nor did it seem he was much of a scholar (though that commentary might have been made about many of the ruling class of the Jews during Jesus’ day).

In summary, how do we teach this to our children? 

When we are “born again” it is God’s supernatural work within us to save us from our sins.  The Holy Spirit breathes brand new spiritual life into us and creates a “new creature” (2 Cor. 5:17) uniting us with Jesus Christ (this includes the promise of being forever in heaven with Him).  Before being born again we are spiritually dead people (Eph. 2:1-10; Col. 3:17) who do not want God or the things of God (Rom. 3:11) and are actually enemies of God (Col. 1:21), slaves of sin (John 8:34, Rom. 6) and Jesus called us children of the Devil (John 8:44).  But God has intervened on our behalf (Eph. 2:4-5) so that we might trust in Jesus. Our part in salvation is to place our faith/hope in Christ for this salvation. We have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 16:31) in order to be saved.  But even this faith we place in Jesus is a gift from God (Ephesians 2:8) and happens the very moment that the Holy Spirit regenerates us (causes us to be born again).

Additional resources: ‘Finally Alive’ by John Piper

Passover Parallels to Christ

~ pjwenzel ~ 1 Comment

Today we talked a little about the parallels between the Passover celebration and the things that Christ accomplished during His time here on earth.  Using Exodus 12, I have gone through and extracted some of these parallels for you to take a peak at:

Passover Parallels – Exodus 12

12:5 Your lamb shall be without blemish – Jesus was called the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). Jesus lived a sinless life, He was without blemish and He made atonement for our sins.

12:7 Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. – Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God, shed His blood on the cross for us, and it is this blood of the lamb that separates the Christian from the unbeliever just as the blood on the doorpost separated the Israelites from the Egyptians, the elect from the reprobate.  It is the blood of Christ that will separate us when Christ comes back and the world is judged.  We don’t have a righteousness of our own, but are clothed in the righteousness of Christ that will allow us to stand before the throne of God on that day.

12:12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD. – The blood of the lamb that is a sign to the Lord’s angel not to kill the first born in that house is a foreshadowing of how the blood of Jesus saves us from the judgment of God (Heb. 10:19-22; Eph. 2:13; Rom. 3:25) and our just end (eternal death/separation from God).  2 Cor. 5:21 tells us that Christ became sin for us that we might not taste God’s wrath.  And Romans 3:25 might say it best, “whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.”

12:14 This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. – The Passover was celebrated even during the time of Christ. Just as the Passover is a sign of God’s deliverance for the Israelites, the Lord’s Super is a sign and remembrance of the deliverance Christ provided. During the ministry of Christ here on Earth, Passover was celebrated three times (John 2:13, 6:4, and 11:55) indicating that His ministry lasted about three years.

12:22 Take a bunch of hyssop – while Christ was on the cross He was given wine and vinegar on a hyssop branch (John 19:29).

12:46 It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones. – None of the bones of Jesus were broken, though it was customary that the legs of a man would be broken on the cross, this did not occur with Jesus (Ps. 34:20; Num. 9:12; John 19:36)

Pastor John Sittma notes that, “Passover was both a family and communal feast.  The lamb chosen ‘for the nation’ was staked out in the temple courtyard on Passover at 9am, and slaughtered publicly at 3pm.  So was Jesus – nailed to the cross at 9am, He died at 3pm, just as the four-footed beast died in a liturgy that concluded, ‘it is finished.’[i]

[i] Tabletalk Magazine, April 2011, ‘Meeting Jesus at an Old Testament Feast.’

The Temple Complex

~ pjwenzel ~ 1 Comment

As we talked about in class today, the temple had many sections to it.  That’s why it was called a “complex.”  The outer court/court of the gentiles, was where the money changers and sacrificial vendors (so to speak) were selling their wares when Jesus cleansed the temple.

Below is a reproduction of the complex from the ESV Study Bible.  The descriptions here are sort of difficult to read without zooming up a bit, but hopefully this at least gives you a taste for what the building looked like.