The Gospel of John 3:1-21
John 3:1-21 · Vern Peterman · Mar 3, 2013
Gospel of John (2013), No. 08
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926344412002

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Let's take a look at that, John 3, 1 and 2. Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.

Anything wrong with what he said? Well, in terms of just speaking about man to man, nothing's wrong, but there's more to Jesus than just being a man. Yeah, Norris, if you look at it, he didn't come and insult him, he didn't, you know, hey, you're a fraud, he didn't come up with anything that's wrong, it was just simply not a full recognition of who Jesus is.

Something else that's typical of the Jews, yeah? I was going to say also, he says, we know, and it's interesting to, I suppose the we would be the Jewish council, or the ruling Jewish council, so that kind of lends light to all the rest of the things that are going to happen, because they did know. Yeah. Now here's something, he says we, and so you get the impression, and we'll find that that's actually reinforced by Jesus' response, The character abuse response, which doesn't come across in English, but we'll make note of it.

Nicodemus is coming across as a representative of a larger group. And my guess is that it includes at least some of the council. We're not given all the names and who might be included. Possibly Joseph of Arimathea is one of those being represented by this we. But nonetheless, that's a very important point. We know. It's not I know, like I'm the only one, but it's we know. So there have been people observing. They've been talking. So there's some communication. He's coming as a representative of a larger group of whatever size. At least some plurality.

We took a look at the Pharisees and who they were, just a quick summary. The Pharisees were probably the culture heroes of the day. The Sadducees were a smaller group, less popular, but more influential among the priests and those involved in the temple. The Pharisees were a larger group and more prominent, and in fact, real interesting, the Pharisees were the group that survived the 70 AD Roman attack. The Sadducees were wiped out.

So anyway, he's in this group. So here's this Nicodemus. Nicodemus, being the Pharisee, is going to believe that there is such a thing as a Messiah. He's going to believe in the resurrection. So those are some things. The kingdom of God is something that the Pharisees would believe, that the Sadducees would not. So distinctions there. And Jesus is going to talk to him in terms of the Messiah and in terms of the kingdom of God. So we'll take a look at that there.

Read in the middle of that first page there, Nicodemus called Jesus a rabbi, which acknowledged him as a teacher in Israel, but Jesus had not become a rabbi by the usual means. What was the usual means of bringing along a rabbi? Yes, a rabbi passes along his rabbinical standing to another. So you've been under the tutelage, if you will, been a disciple of another rabbi. That was the standard.

Who was the rabbi that brought Jesus along? None, right? Here's Jesus at age 12, and that was way too young to be a disciple of a rabbi. Here's Jesus at age 12 actually having advanced discussions with the leaders there at the temple, right? And no rabbi involved. He's from this little podunk town called Nazareth. A little backwater town called Nazareth. That was not something you'd expect. Here's a carpenter's son from a small backwater town.

Now, so Nicodemus points to the signs as evidence of Jesus standing as a rabbi. See the use of the word signs starting with John 2, which we've already looked at, and then continuing on a number of times all the way into the last few chapters. Here's John 3.3, Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. John follows this typical Hebrew pattern of emphasis by double words.

We sing a song that's taken just basically out of the Old Testament. That will keep him in perfect peace. The Hebrew is not perfect peace. The Hebrew is peace, peace. Emphasis just like this. So Jesus says, truly, truly, it's a Hebrew means of emphasizing something. Truly, truly, I say to you, so this is emphatically true.

I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. Now, would there be anything about what Jesus said that Nicodemus couldn't possibly understand? Actually, no. Born again was a term that they used, the rabbis used, we'll get into that. Kingdom of God? There's nothing about what he said that was incomprehensible. However, what he said was shocking, as we'll soon see.

What we see in the bullets right below that, the Jews taught that there were six ways in which a person could be born again, and Nicodemus already qualified for four of those ways of being born again. So Nicodemus, the Pharisees also taught that every Jew was going to enter the kingdom of God. The little bit of Jewish mythology is that Abraham would stand by the gates of hell on the last day to make sure that no Jew went into hell.

So the idea that you might not see the kingdom of God was shocking. And as we'll soon see here, the idea that Nicodemus was not born again was stunning. So what Jesus said, even though it was understandable, was still shocking. So here it is, Nicodemus viewed himself as being born again four times over already before he ever met Jesus there.

A Jewish boy being bar mitzvahed at age 13 was said to be born again. Married to a Jewish, they were also considered to be born again. And by the way, it was a standard for the Pharisees to get married, some of them more eventually than others. But ordained a rabbi, and of course he was a rabbi of rabbis. And being the head of a rabbinical school that is having disciples is also said to be born again. So four times, four ways, Nicodemus would have been considered to be born again. Nicodemus qualified in these four ways and was qualified as a Jew could hope for. But Nicodemus didn't qualify in these other two ways.

One, be a Gentile who converts to Judaism. How is he going to do that? He can't. Be crowned a Davidic King of Israel. Well, unless you're the line of David, you're not getting there. So the reality is, he's got it covered as far as he can. And he's thinking, how do I get more born again than I am? So everything that Jesus just said just stunned him. I'm as born again as you can get. I've already been born again. And, of course, I'm going to enter the Kingdom of God because I'm a Jew. So everything that Jesus told him was stunning.

Now, the born-again term, born from above, is the more literal idea. That is, born again from above is kind of the fuller sense here. How would that be different? It would be different from being born here on earth. Born again from above, rather than being born here on earth.

So the Pharisees would view the kingdom as the coming reign of the Messiah. The Sadducees would not. The descendant of David. Many in our day, of course, would view the kingdom of God as the church. Did Nicodemus have any idea of what a church was, as we think of it?

Not at all. There's no chance. So this entering the kingdom of God by being born again is not a matter of being saved and therefore entering the church. That was not even in the mindset. Nicodemus would have no idea of what the kingdom of God as the church was.

You see, the kingdom, as Nicodemus saw it, was most certainly the place for and centered upon the Jews in the land of Israel. And the Gospels to enter the kingdom of God was to have eternal life. The Gospel of Mark, chapter 9, has that in several different places. John more commonly refers directly to life or eternal life and not so much to the kingdom. So this is actually a more rare mention of the kingdom in the Gospel of John.

So, in view of all the above, Nicodemus was puzzled and amazed. Here's Nicodemus, he comes off with this diplomatic introduction, and Jesus comes right off and just stuns him with the words immediately out of his mouth. He is stunned, shocked. Whoa! I was not expecting that, right?

So here is Nicodemus, John 3.4 here. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he? He's figuring, I've got born again covered. I'm old. I can't do this over again. I can't be a Gentile. I can't be a Davidic king. How do we do this?

Now, one thing, is Nicodemus thinking spiritually, or is he thinking physically? He's thinking physically, isn't he? Isn't it interesting that Jesus makes a spiritual statement, and Nicodemus goes to earthly and literal? Why? Why would he do that? He's used to thinking under the law, yeah, you're right. You're right, except that there's one thing, and I think, Judy, you're onto it, and that's that the whole Jewish mentality is the law, and it's what you do here, and it's my, you know, genetic lineage here that matters? It's what does the law say about what matters? Where am I going to be blessed if I'm a Jew? Here, right?

So the thinking of Nicodemus, even though he's this very learned man and a highly respected rabbi, the thinking is all earthly. That's his orientation is earthly. And of course, one of the things we do here at Holly Hills is we teach heavenly, right? We teach heavenly thinking, that's not at all where he's coming from, where Nicodemus is coming from.

We have other examples, John 2, John 4.11, 6.62, where the Jewish leaders take a spiritual statement and try to interpret it earthly and physically. This is just in line with that pattern of thinking.

So we find Jesus has to speak to him in emphatic terms that can only be understood spiritually. Nicodemus interpreted it physically, and so Jesus is going to come with several statements that can only be understood spiritually. And he's going to make a distinction, a parallel, with physical things to illustrate spiritual things. To get Nicodemus thinking in spiritual terms instead of just, gee, you've got to have the right genetics, I've got to be born again physically, or some interpretation like that.

So here's John 3, 5-8. Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. And there, do not be amazed that I said to you, you must be born again. Isn't that interesting? Wow. Oh, by the way, how old is Jesus about this time? 30? 30-ish, right? How old is Nicodemus likely? 60? Probably twice as old, right? So here's Jesus talking to a guy twice his age. Don't be amazed that I told you he'd be born again, right? So not only is Jesus saying things that are stunning, he's saying things in a way that are likely stunning as well.

In verse 8, the wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. So let's take a look here. Verses 6, 7, 8 are three sets of words that we'll want to examine carefully and in parallel. Jesus is making these spiritual statements and even stating things. Look, that which is flesh is flesh and that which is spirit is spirit. I'm talking spiritual, right? He's making those distinctions. Born of water I'm the spirit. Born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. And born of the spirit. He is being emphatic about the spirit. He is being emphatic about speaking spiritually, not genetics, not which lineage am I born through, what's my genealogy, and what are the traditions. These ought to be interpreted as a whole. He's making them as a statement to try to get Nicodemus thinking spiritually instead of just interpreting things the other way, physically.

You must be born again, in verse 7, is said in the plural, responding most likely to the we that Nicodemus spoke of. And that's an important one. He's not saying, Nicodemus, you must be born again. He says, Nicodemus, you take this back to the others that you're representing here. You and they must be born again. So that's the way Jesus responded. He wasn't, in that sense, very much responding to the way that Nicodemus had presented it to him. I'm talking to you, Nicodemus, and all those who represent you, plural, must be born again.

There's one particular write-up on how this is understood that I think is a good explanation here. The Old Testament often used water metaphorically to symbolize spiritual cleansing and renewal. And so we get several different passages there. God's Spirit, or the Holy Spirit, in the Old Testament represents God's life. And that starts all the way from Genesis chapter 1. God promised that He would pour out His Spirit on people as water. The result of that outpouring would be a new heart for those on whom the Spirit came. Thus, the revelation that God would bring cleansing and renewal as water by means of or effected by His Spirit was clear in the Old Testament.

Don't be surprised, Nicodemus, you ought not to. You're a teacher of the Old Testament. In fact, you are THE teacher of the Old Testament. None of this should be news to you. You should already know it from what the Old Testament presents. Jesus evidently meant that unless a person has experienced spiritual cleansing and renewal from God's Spirit, or the Holy Spirit, he or she cannot enter the Kingdom. This is what he meant by being born from above or again. So with all the Old Testament background, Nicodemus should not have been amazed that Jesus would tell him that he must be born again or from above.

Think of all the different things that the Jews considered born again. Marry a Jewess. Be a rabbi. Be the head of a rabbinical school. All those things that make you born again according to the Jewish tradition. Is that what the Old Testament said? No. So what they had is a whole bunch of traditions that meant you were born again, but they missed the one that the Old Testament actually taught. It's not in the list. Right? It's not in the list.

The other thing we see here is the flesh-spirit distinction in verse 6 is given to draw Nicodemus and those he spoke from away from interpreting everything physically. Verse 8 takes an illustration from the physical realm when to convey a spiritual truth. It's one of the ways the Nicodemus is trying to get the point across to them. Look, I'm going to give you a physical illustration, and that physical illustration is going to tell you spiritual truth. So don't take the whole thing and make it all physical, right? I want to let you know, if there's anything physical to look at, it's only given to point to spiritual truth. That's what he's doing in verse 8 here. It's not a physical rebirth, which is exactly where Nicodemus was going.

So here's John 1, 12-13, which I think sheds some light, part of the introduction to the gospel. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in one's name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Born from God. God introduced it right here in the first chapter.

Born from God, not all these physical things where I've got the right lineage, not like Abraham did where, well, I'll make a son. And God said, nope, that's not the son I intended. Alright, so let's take a look here at page 4. So being born a child of God is not of bloods, and by the way that's plural, plural in the Greek, not just from a Jewish bloodline of whatever tribal group you happen to be. Being born a child of God is not of the will of the flesh, not of human desire to have offspring. In the phrase the will of man, man is andros, meaning specifically male. So, nor of the will of man points to fathering a child as a strategy, even as Abraham once did, Genesis 16 and 17. I'll make a child. Yeah, but that's not the right one, right? Not the right one. That's not how I intended.

So the birth that Jesus was talking about was a spiritual rebirth that God accomplishes in the spiritual realm, which is a work of the Holy Spirit. How many of the born-again categories that was common among the Jews? We had six of them. Nicodemus had four. How many of those was what Jesus was talking about? None of them. So Nicodemus is kind of going down the list. I've got four of them covered. Here's two more. How do I get back? I can't be a Gentile. I can't be born on the line of David. How do I do this? And the reality is it wasn't a matter of pick one out of six, it's a matter of none of the above. None of the above. He had it all wrong.

Back on John 1.12-13 where it says that many have received him?

Yes. I always thought that that received end would have been in passive tense. It's actually active, is it not? It's to take hold of, or to grasp, or to reach out. What's really interesting is to look at, you know, we don't have immediately, without some additional verbiage, we don't have in our language the active-passive thing. But what's interesting is there are a number of places, and this is one of them, where the active voice is used. An instance learned in the New Testament is active, always. And we think of learning as, well, you learn because this teacher is active. No. It's the student is active. And this is another instance of that. OK. So.

John 3.9, Nicodemus said to him, how can these things be? After these stunning statements, Nicodemus doesn't get it. He's just blown away. How can these things be? Here's this guy twice as old as Jesus, and Jesus says things to him. The first thing Jesus says just stuns him. Jesus tries to explain it, and he's still baffled. He is still baffled. He doesn't get it.

So, John 3, 10-15, And Jesus answered and said to him, Are you, and notice, definite article, THE teacher of Israel. It's like you're the teacher of teachers. I mean, we've got a bunch of rabbis here. I mean, you're like, you know, THE number one rabbi here. And, wow. and do not understand these things. You've got all those born-agains that are part of tradition, but the one that's in the Old Testament, that's been around there for centuries, you don't get it. And you're the one teaching on everybody else.

Truly, truly, now here's this same pattern again, I say to you, you speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you plural, I'm not saying you Nicodemus, you plural don't accept our testimony. If you plural, if I told you rather, you plural earthly things and you plural do not believe, how will you plural believe if I tell you heavenly things?

No one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. So, whoever believes will in him have eternal life. So, Nicodemus had called Jesus a teacher. A teacher, in verse 2. Here in verse 10, Jesus turns around and says, you are the teacher of Israel. So, interesting that Jesus would be acknowledged by Nicodemus as a teacher. Where does that put it? One of many. And here's an interesting thing. Jesus was one of many. He did not become a rabbi, even though Nicodemus acknowledges him as one. He did not become a rabbi by the usual means. But he did have qualifications, and that was he does the signs.

So then Jesus turns around and says, you must be born again, and it's Yisra'el born again, that is not according to any Jewish tradition, but it's right there in the Old Testament. It's the born again that they haven't been seeing. While Jesus told him not to marvel at Jesus telling him that you, plural, must be born again, Jesus marvels that Nicodemus, the teacher of Israel, does not understand. What I'm telling you, Nicodemus, you ought to understand. You most certainly ought to, especially being the teacher of Israel. So then Jesus tells Nicodemus, that Christ must be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. And that, of course, Jesus was foretelling his death on the cross, a topic that keeps coming up in the Gospel of John. Where did we see Christ's death on the cross referred to in Chapter 1?

The Lamb of God. The Lamb, twice in Chapter 1. Behold the Lamb of God. The first time, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So twice in Chapter 1, he's called the Lamb. Chapter 2, he begins what is an ongoing set of instances where Jesus talks about, it's not my time yet, not my time yet, not my time yet. And we'll see as we proceed through the Gospel of John, his time does come, and it is specifically the beginning of his time starts with his death on the cross, and ends when he ascends. So, chapter 2, Jesus makes reference to it. Here in chapter 3, the reference is different. He doesn't call himself the Lamb, he doesn't talk about my time, he talks about being lifted up.

But he keeps in each chapter, keeps bringing back, I'm looking forward to that time on the cross. Looking forward to that time on the cross. Let's ask this, was Jesus looking forward to the time on the cross because it was this tremendously pleasurable event. No, not at all. Why would he look forward to it and keep bringing it up? That was his assigned job from God. Let's say that Jesus came and he said all these things that he said and lived out his life and died. What would be wrong with that? He would not have come to do what he came to do.

It was not for Jesus simply to be a great teacher. And that's one thing that a lot of people misunderstand. It was not simply for Jesus to be a great teacher. And we've got all kinds of great teachers and different religions and all sorts of things. this death on the cross is singular and of great, great importance. Well, for those of us who grew up in a time when Disneyland was around, I know this is a jump off the subject, but we're going to jump right back on it. Jimmy Dodd had kind of drawn out something about being the goodest American and all that, but he only called Jesus, not by name, but he only called him a great teacher. Which was Nicodemus' mistake, right? Yeah. Yeah, Nicodemus' mistake.

And so, it's interesting that Jesus, in different ways, keeps bringing up this thing, you know, I'm not here just to be a great teacher, I'm going to be lifted up, and that's what I'm here for. And it's very important that you know that. And I'm going to keep bringing it up in various ways.

So that whoever believes in him will have eternal life. John says at the end, although he doesn't wait until then to bring it up, John says at the end of the Gospel of John that these things are written that you might believe, and that believing you might have life through his name. So that believing is brought straight forward here. So that whoever believes will in him have eternal life. This is the bottom line, Nicodemus. This is the bottom line.

So, John 3.16-21.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He who believes in him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

This is the judgment that the Light came into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifest as having been wrought in God."

Alright, so let's take a look here on page 5. There's some debate that passage I just read, whether those words were spoken by Jesus to Nicodemus, or whether John is writing. I'll let the folks who like to debate that sort of thing debate it. The reality is, it's fire and truth either way, right? For God so loved the world, refers to the world of spiritually fallen sinners. The world of spiritually fallen sinners.

Loved and gave is a pattern that starts here and continues on in Galatians 2.20, Ephesians 5.2, and Ephesians 5.25. What's interesting is loved and gave is God so loved and gave here. And those three instances in Paul's letters are Christ loved and gave. So part of what that tells you, Christ did not go kicking and screaming to the cross. He didn't say, no, you've got it all wrong. You're making a terrible mistake. This is awful. You've got to stop this. No, Jesus goes to the cross and He says, let's do this. Let's do this.

This is what I've come here for. Verse 17, the purpose of Christ's first coming is described, but in fact Christ's second coming will be for the purpose and part of judging, starting from the very beginning of the kingdom. When we study through Matthew 25, not that long ago, Christ gave out the criteria for judgment of the different groups. So here's this thing, you've got this pattern. Here's Jesus. Jesus means Savior, right?

That is primarily focused upon His first coming, which is not about judging people, but in fact about Christ paying the price for us. Christ is about primarily Christ's second coming, which will be a time of judgment. But this first coming is not about judgment.

What is the one way of sidestepping the judgment? What is the one way of sidestepping the judgment? Believing. That's it. Believing sidesteps the judgment. Why? Because there is a difference. Ah, okay. The judgment fell upon Christ. And what we do when we believe is we believe that Christ took that judgment upon himself for your sins and mine, and so we bypass the judgment, that's what this passage is saying. We bypass the judgment because the judgment fell upon Christ. We accept his payment entirely for our sins.

Believing is in the name, that is, the character and identity of the person and accomplishments of Christ, Jesus Christ, the unique Son of God. So John then writes of light and darkness, just like he did starting in chapter 1. And one of the things we'll find as we continue through the Gospel of John, John 1, 1-18 carries the seeds of all the rest of the Gospel, and we're seeing that here. Mention of light, and then here, further explanation about light. Isn't it interesting, people are either drawn to the darkness or drawn to the light.

If you think about it, what's happening in the course of life? What's happening in the course of life? What's life all about? Is it about driving cars? Is it about moving things from here to there? Yes? I think the picture of the tree of knowing good and evil is really the essence of that because we're confronted with choices of good and evil constantly.

But each individual ends up being, in the end, either drawn to the light or drawn to the darkness. And it's one way or the other. And in the end, that's the most important question. It's not who dies with the most toys wins. Because if you think that through, if you were to go around and just ask a number of people that you would encounter, what's life all about? What are we doing here? What's the most important thing? And people would come up with different things, different answers to that.

But what this is telling us is the really important thing is what are you doing with light? What are you doing with the light? And ultimately it's light with a capital L. That's Christ. They're drawn to the light or repulsed by it. Drawn to the light or repulsed by it.

We have Peter, it's interesting, here's Peter in 1 Peter chapter 1, twice he talks about being born again. And so 1 Peter 1, 3-5 there at the bottom of page 5. Blessed be the God and Father. By the way, blessed be the God is also the same phraseology that's there in Ephesians 1-3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing.

And by the way, that set of words is out of the Old Testament. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven.

By the way, where is it? heaven, not here as the rabbis kept pointing to, blessing here and all that, but reserved in heaven for you who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Whose power does your salvation depend upon? God. That's what Peter just said here. It's God's power that your salvation depends upon, not yours. Our faith and trust is in God and His accomplishments, not one working really hard to stay unsaved.

1 Peter 1.22-23 Since you have, in obedience to the truth, purified your souls for the sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart. For you have been born again, not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable. That is the living and enduring word of God.

Now, there's an appendix here, and it's to kind of further explain something, since we are going to continue to go through the Gospel of John and see reference to things like Passover and some of the other feasts of the Jews. As a matter of fact, there's one mention of Hanukkah in the whole Bible is in the Gospel of John, so we'll see that in Chapter 10. So the Feast of Israel given in the Law of Moses, those were seven feasts, and we have a slightly updated chart from what I showed you a couple weeks ago in the calendar below. So you see Passover, that starts the feasts for the Jewish year. Passover, Unleavened Bread, and First Fruits. And then the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost. And then the Fall Feast, Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles.

Hanukkah was from an event just not quite two centuries earlier from the New Testament times. And that was added. So that's not from the Law of Moses. And then Purim is taken, as you see in the table above there, from Esther. So you have those two are not from the Law of Moses. They're added to the seven feasts from the Law of Moses. Yes?

What does that actually celebrate? Going through the book of Esther, it was a time when they were under the Persian rule and there was a threat by the strategies of this guy named Haman who tried to have the Jews all killed off and that was thwarted And so the thwarting of the extermination of the Jews, this would have been a Jewish Holocaust. The thwarting of the extermination is the celebration of Purim, where they were preserved.

Does it always follow the same day of the year? One thing you'll notice is the date of celebration is the same day according to the Jewish calendar. All of these are according to the same day of the Jewish calendar. That falls on different days than ours. We have a calendar that is basically solar. broken up by months that aren't all the same length. The calendar we use was established by Pope Gregory in the 1500s. So it's the Gregorian calendar.

The Jews had a lunar calendar within a solar year. And so what they did was they have these different months and you see those, here's Nissan was the first one. and you go around there and each of them are numbered ending the year with ADAR, they would actually throw in a 13th month from time to time to get their lunar calendar in sync with the solar calendar. So they had a lunar calendar within a solar year. That was the way they did it. Yes, in other words, we have a leap year, right, to accommodate things. And even at that, they make some adjustments by seconds or fractions of seconds, where the reality is that we have a system that kind of works for us.

And by the way, real interestingly, the whole world had not adopted the Gregorian calendar even as recently as less than a century ago. It was not universally accepted. One of the other things to note here is that they had other feasts of the Jews that were inserted, Purim and Hanukkah, entirely by later tradition, and that John 10, 22 and 23, which doesn't say Hanukkah, But that's the only mention of Hanukkah in the entire Bible. Of course, Purim is only brought out from the Book of Esther, the one book of the Old Testament that doesn't have the name of God mentioned. So those two were added later. The New Testament doesn't seem to speak either highly of it or ill of it, either way.

Anyway, we will want to make note of that because we're going to see that day Hanukkah mentioned in John chapter 10, we're going to repeatedly see the Passover including the time of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection is at Passover and Unleavened Bread time. Thoughts, questions about the calendar here? In John 3, chapter 13, Nick Neumes could have understood the views that were critical. How would he have understood if Jesus said, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen and we are going to accept our testimony? Who's the we? Ultimately, we speak of what we know. How would he have understood that?

Think of this. The Jews did not understand well the idea of the Trinity. Although, when you go back in the Old Testament, you can certainly find it. Let us make man in our image. How else are you going to explain that? And there is reference to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament.

But just like a lot of things that are in the Old Testament, the Jews just didn't get it. And so Nicodemus would not have understood the we as a Trinity kind of statement at all. However, he would have understood if Jesus was speaking about, I'm telling you, and my disciples are saying along with me, something of that sort. You'll notice that the we is not capital W. It's not seen in that sense, whereas the us is typically capitalized in Genesis. Yeah? I had a question in the John 1 12 to 13, the phrasing I find interesting.

So it says, but as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God. I mean, what I'm saying is those who received him become children of God. What is the insertion of he gave the right to become? Ah, OK. The right to become children of God. Why would this word right? I think it also means privilege and it also means freedom. That would be two synonyms for it. So, it's available. If you don't receive him, do you have the right? No. No, you don't. It's not an option. You have no right unless you receive him. So that's part one.

I think there's something else too, and that is, in the Roman Empire, this was not carried out so much by the Jews, but in the Roman Empire, it was legal for a father, not the mother, but the father, to end the life at any time of a son or a father who had not been accepted, legally accepted, as this father's child. Once the father accepted legally the child, then he no longer had that. So having the right to be a child of God was actually a legal recognition in the Roman Empire. So that's one reason I explained this before, the passage in 1 John, behold what manner of love the father has given to us, that we should be called sons of God. children of God, or sons of, that was just an astounding thing.

I was just weeks away from finishing seminary, but I was doing a lot of Greek translation work towards the end, and I translated that passage and I just broke into tears. And the reason was, I just said, here are these people in an empire where my father could kill me at any time. But if I'm declared legally accepted as a child of the Father, my life can never be taken away again. That threat goes away.

And so God, grace gave this position of being a child of God, of being a son. This is amazing stuff. And so when you talk about right, I think John is underscoring something here. It's not just that we become the children of God. We gain a right we didn't have before, and it's the only way to get it. Does that help? Yeah, Steve?

Doesn't it also go back to what I said earlier about the word receive is an active verb, and it means to take, and to take hold of? And I think there's a comparison, because I can't remember where now, but someplace that says that people are trying to take the kingdom through violence. Well this is taking the kingdom through belief and through acceptance and through receiving Jesus, right? That's not through violence.

Can you get arm twisted into salvation? No. It doesn't work that way, does it? If you look at it, a lot of people, or even Christians who go around trying to twist people's arms into believing or being real persuasive and influential, in the end, you've got to believe and there isn't any made-to-believe that's going to do the job. It's not going to work.

It is definitely something where a person does actively believe. And that's what's necessary. God-motivated, not self-motivated. Yeah, and it's not something I can't push somebody else into it. It's not something I can just use a lot of social pressure to make happen.

Not going to happen. Not going to happen. I can remember many years ago, Randy saying, well, we have to make Eddie believe, his youngest brother. And Nancy explaining, well, that's not going to work. That's not how it works. So we can't make someone believe. We can't do it for them. They themselves must believe.

As many as the seed seeds. And then he gave the right for the power to become the sons of God. You don't have the right and you don't have the power until you believe, and believing is the only way to get there. Period. Here's Nicodemus thinking, oh boy, I'm married to a Jewish, I'm a rabbi, I'm head of a rabbinical school, I've got it all covered up. I've been born again, again, again, again. And Jesus says, nope, none of the above. None of that passes. Believe is the only way you get that right. Here's Nicodemus. Imagine, it's just nighttime. He's walking away. And boy, he is just stunned. He is just stunned.

But it's evident, as we'll see later on as we go through the Gospel of John, he ultimately gets it. He ultimately gets it. Yeah? Yeah, I'm kind of fascinated at the moment with the idea of receiving being, to grasp and hold on. It kind of explains to me. I think, like when I talk to cousins and relatives, well, I believe that too. You know, yeah, I received Jesus. And yet, you look at the life and the priorities, and there doesn't seem to be anything there that they're holding on to in regard to Christ. And so it leaves with a feeling of Are they truly safe? Yeah, and that is a question.

You don't become a Christian just by genetics or having to be in the right group or I showed up at the right time or something. It doesn't happen that way. Here is the Apostle Paul, he's talking to the Philippian jailer. This is real direct. What must I do to be safe? believe, active. Actively believe, not just, whoops, I guess I'm saved, you know? But yes, actively believe, and yet, though it says active, does that place any merit on us? No. It's depending entirely on Christ's merit. That's what actively believing is. That's what actively believing is. Let's pray.

Lord, as we look at this passage, what a fascinating passage, and how astounding to think of, here's Nicodemus, twice as old as Jesus, and he's gone through all the, quote, right channels, and Jesus has not. And here he is, full of learning, highly regarded among the Jews, and yet he doesn't get it. He's baffled, he's amazed, he's puzzled, he's astounded. How can these things be? And yet, a time does appear to come when he does understand and he does believe.

And thank you for that, that we can look at that. And even at times when we look at it and we say, well, I don't get it, still the Lord can bring us along, just like we saw there with Nicodemus. Thank you, Lord, for this very special passage and the introduction of special passages to come. And we pray in Jesus' name, amen.