Participants: Deyvy Rodriguez & Jon Paulien
Series Code: JBOTB
Program Code: JBOTB00008B
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00:01 And welcome back, we are studying the Gospel of John
00:03 and we are in chapter 3, we're studying Nicodemus. 00:08 And Dr. Jon Paulien is with us. 00:10 I have a question for you, Dr. Paulien. 00:13 We're talking about how Jesus answers 00:17 some of His, some of His questions. 00:19 And He goes on to explain 00:21 that unless one is born of water and the Spirit 00:26 and Jesus says that, 00:30 which that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 00:33 But what is the water, being born of water mean? 00:38 Well, you have Nicodemus in the story. 00:40 Jesus is speaking to him, 00:42 so it's got to make some sense to Nicodemus. 00:45 And you remember in the previous segment 00:47 Nicodemus is the leader of these Pharisees in a real way. 00:50 He's the dean of the seminary. 00:52 The Pharisees sent a delegation to meet John, the Baptist. 00:57 You know, baptism is not normal for Jews 00:59 at that time as we think of baptism today. 01:02 They did have these ceremonial washings. 01:04 And so John is over there baptizing 01:07 and Nicodemus has that in his mind. 01:10 So I think it's very, very likely 01:12 that when Jesus talks about water and the Spirit here, 01:14 He is referring to baptism. 01:16 And you need to be baptized in the Spirit. 01:20 You see here's the thing. 01:22 You can be baptized, 01:24 you can do all the washings that Nicodemus used to do. 01:27 Maybe he was even baptized by John, you see. 01:30 And if that's little detail is not here, 01:32 it would be very interesting historically. 01:34 So Jesus then would be saying, you can be baptized, 01:39 you can have your name on the books and stuff, 01:41 but if you haven't given your life 01:43 to be transformed by the Spirit, 01:45 then you haven't received all of that is there for you. 01:48 I would like to point to a text in Ezekiel 36, 01:53 where water and Spirit are tied together 01:55 and may well have been in John's mind 01:58 or in Jesus' mind at this point. 02:00 Ezekiel 36:25-27. 02:06 It says, "I will sprinkle clean water on you, 02:09 and you will be clean, 02:11 I will cleanse you from all your impurities 02:13 and from all your idols. 02:15 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you, 02:19 I will remove from you the heart of stone 02:21 and give you a heart of flesh. 02:22 And I will put my Spirit in you 02:24 and move you to follow my decrees 02:26 and be careful to keep my laws." 02:28 So here water and Spirit are united together as a cleansing 02:32 and it's an empowering to a new kind of life. 02:35 And Jesus was saying, you know, you can be dean of the seminary, 02:38 you can have your name on the books, 02:40 you can be baptized all of that. 02:42 But until you give yourself totally to Christ 02:44 and allow Him to transform you through the Spirit. 02:48 It's only an outward shell. 02:50 In the Gospel of John, there's this constant contrast 02:52 between the outward shell of religion 02:55 and the real genuine article. 02:57 And this born again concept, being born from heaven, 03:01 being born of the Spirit. 03:03 So, it's very important part of the Gospel of John. 03:07 And Jesus is looking for genuine followers. 03:10 Not just in number, 03:13 but people with the sincerity to follow Him, 03:17 to take up their cross and keep His commandments. 03:21 That was a sharp, really sharp pick up right now, 03:24 because we haven't yet talked about verses 18 to 21 03:27 but there that's exactly where he goes with this. 03:30 When John himself interprets the story of Nicodemus, 03:34 he goes there it's all about genuineness. 03:37 And we will see that in just a moment. 03:39 But before we get there, let's stop at verse 16 03:41 because everybody loves John 3:16, 03:45 even people at football games sometimes. 03:47 And, you know, John 3:16 is the big thing, 03:50 you know, you see the signs sometimes. 03:53 So why don't you read it for us 03:55 in the New King James, I think you have that. 03:58 "For God so loved the world 03:59 that He gave His only begotten Son, 04:01 that whoever believes in Him 04:03 should not perish but have everlasting life." 04:06 That only begotten peace, that bothered some people. 04:09 You know, what does He mean Jesus was His only begotten Son? 04:14 Did God have a son? 04:17 You know, in a literal sense 04:19 and doesn't that contradict what John was saying in 1:1 04:23 where Jesus is not part of creation, 04:25 He has no beginning and all the rest of that. 04:28 Well, there's a long history to this passage. 04:31 And you may be aware that 04:33 well, the New Testament was written in Greek. 04:35 It got translated into Aramaic, into Latin, 04:39 into Ethiopic languages, etcetera. 04:42 So there were lot of different translations 04:44 and the translation that most powerfully affected 04:47 the main line Christian church was the Latin translation. 04:51 Particularly one called the Vulgate 04:54 which in the middle ages was a primary way 04:56 that people got into the Bible. 04:58 And it's interesting that in translating this text, 05:01 the Latin gives you two options 05:03 for this mono-ganese in the Greek is this one of kind. 05:09 Mono-ganese really means one of a kind, 05:13 if you take it literally. 05:15 In Latin you could translate that unicus which means unique. 05:20 Well, you could translate unigenitus 05:23 which means only born or one of a kind once again. 05:28 So in Latin there's an ambiguity 05:31 between one of a kind and only born. 05:34 So the Latin translators chose this only born. 05:39 But mono-ganese, 05:41 the Greek word here is used in the story of Isaac. 05:45 Isaac was Abraham's mono-ganese. 05:49 Wait a minute. Was that his only son? 05:55 Who else does he have? 05:57 He had-- Ishmael. 05:58 Ishmael. Right. 05:59 First, Isaac wasn't even the first born son. 06:02 He was not the only son of Abraham. 06:04 In fact, did you know that after Sarah died, 06:07 Abraham remarried had six more sons. 06:10 Lot of people don't know that little detail 06:12 'cause it's only mentioned in passing. 06:13 So he was not Abraham's only son, 06:15 mono-ganese doesn't fit there, but he was one of a kind. 06:19 He was the only son of Sarah 06:22 and he was the only son of a promise 06:25 that God gave special promises to fall on Isaac and only Isaac. 06:31 So Abraham and Isaac, 06:34 their relationship was one of a kind, it was unique. 06:37 And so Jesus has a relationship with God like no one else. 06:41 He has that unique relationship with God. 06:44 And the beauty of this passage is as it says, 06:48 God so loved the world that He gave His unique One, 06:55 His uniqueness that Jesus is unique. 06:58 He is God Himself. 07:00 He Himself contains within Himself a fullness of God. 07:06 In Jewish thinking of the time, God is the creator 07:12 and God is the only one who can be worshipped. 07:15 And He is the only true ruler of the universe. 07:18 And Jesus is portrayed in all three ways. 07:22 In the New Testament, He is the creator, 07:26 He is the ruler of the universe and He can be worshipped. 07:30 Angels can't be worshipped but Jesus can. 07:32 That means Jesus carried in Himself 07:34 the fullness of what God is like. 07:37 And so in His coming, 07:39 He helps us to understand what in fact God is like. 07:44 One more thing I want to mention, 07:45 then we want to get to verses 18 to 22. 07:48 "Since God so loved the world that He gave His only Son 07:51 that whosoever believes might have everlasting life." 07:57 I think that whosoever is crucial 08:00 to what John is doing here 08:02 because Nicodemus is an example of whosoever. 08:05 Jesus came for the Jews and for the Pharisees. 08:08 The Samaritan woman is another example of the whosoever. 08:12 She is the opposite end from Nicodemus. 08:15 Yeah, she is not a religious teacher. 08:17 She is a woman who's been living a very loose life. 08:20 In every way she is the opposite of Nicodemus. 08:23 Yet the whosoever includes her. 08:25 And then at the end of the chapter 4, 08:27 you have a Gentile prince who comes to Jesus. 08:31 So Jewish leader, woman at the outcast of society, 08:36 Gentile prince, whosoever includes them all. 08:39 I don't care what background you have, 08:41 where you've come from, the gospel includes you. 08:45 But let's finish off with verses 18 to 21 08:47 'cause this is often overlooked 08:49 and we want to capture that if we can. 08:52 "'He who believes in Him is not condemned, 08:54 but he who does not believe is condemned already, 08:58 because he has not believed 08:59 in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 09:02 And this is the condemnation, 09:04 that the light has come into the world, 09:06 that men loved darkness rather than light, 09:09 because their deeds were evil. 09:11 For everyone practicing evil hates the light 09:13 and does not come to the light, lest his deeds be exposed. 09:18 But he who does the truth comes to the light, 09:21 that his deeds may be clearly seen, 09:24 that they have been done in God.' " 09:27 So what does light do? 09:29 Light exposes the reality of things 09:32 that were not known in the dark, you see. 09:35 One thing you don't know is the character of a person. 09:38 Jesus is the light. 09:40 When He comes Nicodemus or Nicodemus comes to Him, 09:42 Jesus exposes the spiritual deficit in Nicodemus' life. 09:48 So this is an illustration of everyone that Jesus met, 09:52 Jesus very presence calls them to judgment. 09:55 Jesus' very existence there is a decisive moment. 10:00 If they reject Jesus, they're turning away from the light, 10:05 they are going back in the darkness. 10:07 If they accept Jesus, they come to the light 10:09 and they are accepted by Him. 10:13 Then it raises the question. 10:14 Why wouldn't people come to Jesus? 10:18 Why would you reject the gospel? 10:20 It's free. 10:22 Just ask and you will receive. 10:24 Why would people reject that? 10:27 Tells us in verse 20. 10:30 John 3:20. 10:31 "For everyone practicing evil hates the light 10:34 and does not come to the light, 10:37 lest his deeds should be exposed." 10:39 So what's the problem? 10:40 Why don't people come to Jesus? 10:42 They don't want their deeds to be exposed. 10:44 Ah. You see, every one of us has little dirty secrets. 10:50 Every one of us has dark places 10:52 we don't want the light to shine. 10:54 We feared ever since Adam and Eve hid in the garden from God. 10:58 We have been filled with shame and with guilt 11:01 and we try to hide from God, 11:02 that's natural for human beings to do. 11:05 And so when Jesus comes many people shied away from Him 11:09 because they recognized 11:11 that they would have to give up their secrets. 11:13 That's what confession is all about. 11:16 It's simply telling the truth about yourself. 11:19 It's allowing the dirty secrets to come out. 11:22 If we confess our sins, 11:23 He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. 11:26 Why would not confessing be a problem? 11:29 Because we are saying 11:31 I'm keeping, this is mine, you can't have it, okay. 11:34 When Jesus shines to light, 11:36 He exposes the things that we are hiding. 11:38 Now we have a problem. 11:40 We can be like a bug. 11:41 If you ever taken a walk in the night 11:43 and you see a rock on the ground with your flashlight, 11:45 you pick up the rock. 11:47 And you shine the flashlight, what's going on, 11:49 there's often lot of little bugs, 11:50 you know, just going crazy. 11:52 They don't like the light, 11:53 they're like, hey, put that rock back, man. 11:54 I like being under the rock, it was nice and safe in there. 11:57 The light is scaring me, you see. 11:59 People are like bugs under a rock. 12:01 When the light shines, we tend to freak out. 12:05 And that's the reason people turn away from the gospel, 12:08 because they don't want their deeds to be exposed. 12:11 And that's a challenge to me, 12:13 because I need to ask myself everyday, am I living genuinely? 12:17 Is my faith at home 12:19 the same faith that I live when I'm on TV? 12:22 When I'm out in public? 12:23 When I'm preaching to people? 12:25 Or is there an act that I can put on in this place, 12:27 but back at home the real me shows up, you see. 12:30 Who we are when no one's looking, 12:32 who we are at home, 12:34 that's the real test of whether we are following Jesus or not. 12:37 And Jesus invites people to come to Him, 12:40 but in the process He shines the light on us. 12:43 And He calls for authenticity for the faith to be real. 12:47 So what the verse is saying is that men will be judged for-- 12:51 not for the darkness He loved 12:52 but rather for the light that they receive 12:54 when they are not in darkness which they rejected. 12:58 And well, Dr. Paulien I pray that light that God-- 13:01 that God gives me that I cannot reject 13:04 and that I can continue to grow in that light. 13:07 And I pray that to you too, my friends till next time. |
Revised 2014-12-17