Here is a teaching of part 1 of chapter 3 of the book of John. If you want to check out previous Bible studies and chapters going forward, join our group here. Once you get added into that Facebook group, you can go to the "units" tab and you'll see all of the chapters and their study guides as they are being taught.
Part 1 of John Chapter 3:
1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him." 3 In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." 4 "How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!"
5 Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the spirit."
I'm just going to stop right here for a minute because there are a few things that I want to discuss in the verses above. So we know that Nicodemus was a member of the Jewish ruling council based on these verses. We also know from the book of John so far in what we've read, we know that Jesus performed the miraculous sign of changing water to wine. All throughout the book of John Jesus is performing miraculous signs and there's a lot more that's not recorded in this book that he performs. So Nicodemus comes to Jesus because he knows that he has to be from God if he's performing all of these miraculous signs, because if God were not with him, he wouldn't be able to do that.
In verse three where it says, ”I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.“ Jesus is talking about the new birth, which is mentioned several times in the old Testament. Jesus even says, “You shouldn't be surprised at my saying that you must be born again” because Nicodemus is supposed to be this great teacher of Israel and he's a member of the Jewish ruling council. So Nicodemus should know all about the old Testament and about the new birth.
Now in verse five it says, “No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the spirit,” which with water and the spirit, it's not completely clear. I've tried to do some research to figure out if, with water, he means baptism, because that's initially what I thought whenever I read this, but doing some research, it's not exactly clear if it means baptism or the water sack from the womb. But we know that we need to be born also from the spirit and the only way we can be reborn with the spirit is through Jesus Christ and through accepting him into our hearts and having him forgive us of our sins. So that's the most important thing is knowing that to be born or to be reborn, not only do we need to be born from our mother's womb, but also in the spirit, and we can only do that with Jesus Christ.
There are a few verses that I wanted to put here for you guys from the Old Testament about the new birth so you can get a clear understanding of what new birth means.
First I'm just going to put some verses from the book of Jeremiah and they say:
31 “The time is coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them, declares the Lord. 33 "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the Lord. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the Lord. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.“ -Jeremiah 31: 31-34
So in these verses here, he's talking about the new covenant and how he's going to forgive every one of their sins, that they will all know him and he's going to put his law in their minds, in their hearts, and they're going to be his people. What he's talking about here is the new birth of Jesus Christ coming into the earth, living a sinless life, dying on the cross for our sins to forgive us of our sins, and raising three days later, and whoever believes in him and accepts him in their hearts become saved and have the Holy Spirit within them (being reborn in Spirit.) So he doesn't specifically talk about all that stuff here, but that is what he is implying with the new birth and Jesus Christ coming into our hearts and forgiving us of our sins.
All right. So a couple more verses I wanted to put is in the book of Ezekiel and they say:
19 I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. 20 Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God. -Ezekiel 11: 19-20
So right here in these verses, they're talking about the new birth of giving them an undivided heart and a new spirit, and that can only be done through Jesus Christ. So those are some of the verses that talk about the new birth in the Old Testament to give you a clear understanding of what it is and that's why Jesus said that Nicodemus shouldn't be confused on why he said a man should be born again, because if he was a great teacher of the Old Testament, then he should know all about the new birth.
So I'm going to go back into chapter three of the book of John and we're going to start reading from verse nine where I left off:
9 “How can this be?" Nicodemus asked. 10 "You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things? 11 I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I've spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven--the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
So I'm just going to stop right here and discuss a few things with you guys. So Jesus was stern with Nicodemus because he kept questioning him. Nicodemus kept thinking that new birth meant having to be born out of your mother's womb again. In verse 13, where it says “No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven-- the Son of Man,” here Jesus is making it clear that the things that he says about heaven or the kingdom of God is true and he's the only one that can talk about it because he's the Son of Man. No one has gone into heaven except the one from heaven, which is Jesus Christ, the Son of Man. Just like we read here in chapter one of the book of John, where it talks about Jesus Christ being the word it says in verses 1 and 2 of chapter one of John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” So Jesus came from heaven down onto the earth, lived a sinless life, died on the cross for our sins, rose three days later, and then went back to heaven, which we'll learn more about that in the chapters going forward in the book of John, but that's what he was talking about here in verse 13. He was just making it clear that he was the one that came from heaven and what he says about heaven or being able to enter the kingdom of God is true.
In verse 14, he uses the illustration of Moses lifting up the snake in the desert to show how Jesus Christ must be lifted up. To get a clear understanding of what he's talking about here, about Moses lifting up the snake in the desert, I'm going to put those verses about that here from the book of Numbers:
4 They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; 5 they spoke against God and against Moses and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!" 6 Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. 7 The people came to Moses and said, "We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us." So Moses prayed for the people. 8 The Lord said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live." 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived. -Numbers 21: 4-9
So the representation of a bronze snake here is a judgment of sin and he put the bronze snake on a pole. So just as Moses lifted up that snake on a pole, so will the Son of Man be lifted up. So that's what Jesus was talking about here in verse 14 of chapter 3 of the book of John.
In verse 15 it says that "everyone who believes in him may have eternal life," So Jesus died on the cross for our sins to forgive us of our sins, he became that representation of sin on the cross, died on the cross to forgive us of our sins, and whoever believes in him, accepts him into their heart and asks for forgiveness, they have eternal life with Jesus Christ and they have that new spirit, the Holy Spirit within them.
16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed the name of God's one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."
All right. So I'm just going to discuss a few things about these verses here. So it says in verse 16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life," his one and only Son is Jesus Christ. Jesus coming into the earth, dying on the cross for our sins, is showing the never-ending gracious and merciful love that God has for us and that Jesus Christ has for us: that is the greatest symbol of his true love for us. Jesus Christ lived a sinless life, he died on the cross for our sins, to forgive us of our sins, so that if we ask them in our hearts, believe in him, and we accept him and ask for forgiveness, we have eternal life and we have the Holy spirit within us.
It goes on to say, in verse 17, "For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." So even though Jesus had all the authority to judge and to condemn people because he is the Son of Man, he did come from heaven, and he is the light of the world, and the word of God and he was with him in the beginning; he came to save the world and not to condemn it. God knew that we were sinners and all of the laws and the things that he had in the old Testament and the covenant that he made with his people in the Old Testament, it was broken over and over again. God knew that we wouldn't be able to obey the commands because we are all sinners, so Jesus Christ came into the earth to forgive us of our sins and to save the world, not to condemn the world, but to save it.
So it says here that people that don't believe in Jesus are condemned already because they don't believe in God's one and only Son; they don't believe that he died on the cross for our sins, that he came into the earth and lived a sinless life, if they don't believe in him, they're already condemned. They don't have that Holy Spirit within them and no one can come to the Father except through Jesus Christ. So in order for us to be saved and to have eternal life, we have to believe in Jesus Christ and know that he is the son of God and that he died on the cross for our sins.
Then here in verse 19, it says, "this is the verdict: Light has come into the world." We know from chapter one of John it says that Jesus Christ was the light of the world and then it says here in verse 19, "but men love darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed." So Jesus is saying here that the light has come into the world: he is the light of every man, he is the light of the world. He's come to the world, and those whose deeds are evil, are those evil men, hate Jesus. They're not going to come to him and they're not going to believe in him, because they're afraid that their evil hearts and the corruption that they've done is going to be exposed so they just stay in the dark and they don't believe in Jesus Christ and they hate Jesus Christ.
In verse 21 it says, "But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." So if we live by the truth, we're going to come into the light of the world and to Jesus Christ. And we're going to ask him to forgive us of our sins, to come into our hearts, and to save us because we know that; he is from God, that he was with God in the beginning, he's a light of the world, he is God's words, and no one can come to the Father except through him. If we live by the truth, we know that Jesus Christ did walk on this earth, live a sinless life, died on the cross for our sins to forgive us, so whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. We have to come to him and we have to remain in him.
So that's all I'm going to read here in chapter 3 of the book of John. Next week we'll go over part 2 of chapter 3, but all of this first part of chapter 3, where Jesus is teaching Nicodemus and just really explaining how God loved us so much that he brought his one and only son into the earth to live a sinless life and die on the cross for our sins; this is so powerful. We all need to know this and we all need to be spreading the gospel to others, the truth of God's word to others, and let everyone know that Jesus Christ did walk on this earth, live a sinless life, died on the cross for our sins, and rose three days later and that the only way to enter the kingdom of God and the only way to know God is to know Jesus Christ and to believe in Jesus Christ.
So for us, as disciples of Jesus Christ, it is our duty to know and understand the truth of God's words, and then to spread the gospel and the truth of God's words to other people so that they may know Jesus Christ believe in him and may be saved. So they can go to heaven and enter the kingdom of God once their time to go. Knowing about Jesus Christ, his love, his mercy, his grace, and how he saves us from our sins and all of these amazing things is great, but we're doing a disservice if we know all of these things and we're not letting other people know about it. So I'm calling you all to spread the gospel to other people. You now know the truth of God's word through this Bible study, if you didn't already know, and once you've asked Jesus Christ into your heart to forgive you of your sins and you're saved, and you have the Holy Spirit within you. It's so important for you to let other people know about Jesus Christ and to help them to understand the truth of his word, to have that relationship with him and know him and believe in him. You would be doing a disservice if you didn't let other people know about him so that they may be saved and be able to go to heaven also.
John Chapter 3 Study Guide Part 1
Who was Nicodemus?
Why did he go to Jesus?
What do you have to be born of, in order to enter the kingdom of God?
Who is the Son of Man?
How will the Son of Man be lifted up?
What did Jesus Christ come into the world to do?
Why did people love darkness instead of light?
What is our duty as disciples of Jesus Christ?
I'm going to say a quick prayer for you guys before I let you go... Lord, I pray that you just wrap your arms around every single person reading this right now. Lord, I pray that you open up their eyes, their ears, their heart, their mind, and their spirit to you Lord and that they know that Jesus Christ came into this earth, lived a sinless life, died on the cross for our sins so that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. I pray that they are compelled to spread the truth of the gospel and let everyone that they know and love know about Jesus Christ and how amazing he is so that whoever they know may know about Jesus and have that relationship with him and they may be saved by him so they can go to heaven. I pray that you just guide them through every aspect of their life and that they seek guidance, knowledge, and wisdom from you in every single thing that they do. I love you so much, Lord. in Jesus' name, Amen.
I love you guys so much.
Never forget to choose faith over fear.
-Lorena Camille (Faith Fuels My Fire)
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