John 3:13

John 3:13 says, "And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but He which came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven."  This speaks of the unique nature of Jesus.  I have heard people speak of babies as having been sent down from heaven, but there has been only One Who was, and that is Jesus.  As His followers, when we go to heaven, we will be going home to a place we've never been before.  We will not be angels, as they are a different part of creation, and are already in heaven.  Verse fourteen adds, And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up In verse fifteen, Jesus speaks of His death, burial and resurrection.  He said as Moses lifted up the serpent, even so the Son of Man had to be lifted up.  Verse fifteen continues, That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.  It was necessary for Moses to lift up the brass serpent to save Israel from death as the result of their disobedience.  It was necessary for Christ to be lifted up, crucified, to save mankind from death as a result of their sins.  With Moses, the result was temporary, but with Christ it is everlasting.  It required Moses to be obedient to the will God, and it required Jesus to be obedient to the will of the Heavenly Father.  It required the people of Israel to have faith in Moses.  He was their representative to God.  It requires us to have faith in Jesus, as the Messiah, the Savior of the world and our representative before God.  If required them not only to have faith but to act on that faith, to look up at the serpent in Moses' hand.  Our faith in Christ requires action from us.  We must confess to the world that He is our Savior and look up to Him for guidance.  The people of Israel had a choice to either believe and obey or die.  Then we read, "Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that all who believe on Him might be saved."  We today have a choice, to either believe and obey Christ or die in our sins.  The choice should be simple, yet many refuse to believe. 

John 3:7

John 3:7 says, "Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again." Jesus was talking to Nicodemus about being born again, and He said for Nicodemus not to marvel that He said he must be born again, and neither should we.  You cannot be a Cristian without being born again.  The way that God works is not something for us to simply marvel at, but something for us to accept by faith.  Verse eight adds, The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.  Then, Jesus compared the work of the Holy Spirit to the wind.  We do not control the wind, and we do not control the Holy Spirit.  The wind blows where it will, and the Holy Spirit acts where He will.  Though we do not see the wind, we see the results of the wind.  Though we do not see the Holy Spirit, if He is at work in our lives, we see the results.  The wind is a powerful force, as is the Holy Spirit, only very much magnified.  We don't know where the wind comes from, nor can we predict the movement of the Holy Spirit.  I think Jesus was telling Nicodemus to not question or simply marvel at what God was doing, but to accept in faith that He was doing it.  We cannot always understand the way that God works, but we can always accept in faith what He is doing.  Verse nine continues, Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?  Nicodemus still wasn't ready to believe what Jesus was saying, asking how these things could be.  Again, we do not need to question how God works, but believe in what He does.  If we, or a loved one, or simply someone we hear about is miraculously healed, do we ask how this can be, or as His followers, do we simply praise Him?   Verse ten says, Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?  Jesus said to Nicodemus that he was a master of Israel and asked how he could not know these things.  As Christians today, we should know the truth of God, especially the truth of being born again.  If we fail to acknowledge this truth, we cannot be His follower.  We may be a religious leader or a great person in the eyes of the world, but we cannot be a Christian without being born again.  Verse eleven adds, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.  As Jesus continues to speak to Nicodemus said We speak about that We know.  Notice the change from I say to We speak.  Who was Jesus talking about?  Not the disciples following Him.  They had not seen and as yet did not fully understand about being born again.  They simply accepted what Jesus said.  Though some think He was speaking of all the prophets pointing to Him, I believe He was speaking of the Trinity.  Verse twelve continues, If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?  Then, Jesus said that if He told them earthly things and they didn't believe, how could they believe heavenly things.  Jesus had spoken to Nicodemus in earthly terms.  Birth and the wind are easily understandable, so Jesus used them to illustrate a heavenly truth.  God has always and will always speak to us in terms we can understand.  He meets us where we are and leads us to Him.  We respond in faith, and He even provides that for us.  If someone says they cannot believe the gospel because it is too hard to understand, then they are unfamiliar with the gospel.  We do not have to understand all the heavenly things to be saved.  We simply have to understand Jesus Christ, crucified, resurrected, Lord, and put our faith in Him.  In simple, earthly terms, we must be born again.  Until we understand and accept that simple fact, we can never hope to understand heavenly things.  Even after we become His followers in faith, we still will not know all heavenly things.  We can only be sure that it is where Christ is and where He is preparing a place for us.  This should be enough to satisfy our wonder of heaven.  It is where Jesus is and where we can begin to truly understand heavenly things when we join Him. 

John 3:1

 

In the third chapter of John, we find the heart of Christianity.  Some things we may debate, but there is one fundamental that cannot be debated, and that is that you must be born again.   

John 3:1 says, There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:  Verse two adds, The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.  Nicodemus, a Pharisee who was a leader of the Jews, came to Jesus by night.  He was curious about Jesus but didn't want to come to Him when a lot of people might see him.  We cannot come to Jesus in secret.  We must openly confess Him to the world.  Nicodemus acknowledged Jesus as a teacher sent from God.  He recognized that no one could perform the miracles Jesus had without God's power.  It is not enough that we recognize Jesus as simply a teacher sent from God, an extraordinary man, or anything less than the Only Begotten Son of God.  There are those who acknowledge Jesus as being a prophet, a good man, and a historical figure, but they see Him as only a man.  We must acknowledge Him as the Son of God if He is to be our Savior.  Verse three continues, Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.  Jesus's response to Nicodemus in verse three was saying that except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."  There is not a should be or might be or could be, but a must be.  When people say there is any other way to a relationship with God, they are simply wrong.  Verse four states, Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?  Nicodemus asked how a man that is old could enter a second time into his mother’s womb.  Verse five adds, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, lest a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God."  Jesus said that a man must be born of water and the Spirit. This does not mean we must be baptized.  We are born physically, of the water, and we must be born again, of the Spirit.  Verse six continues, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, but that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit."  When we accept Jesus as our Savior, we become of the Spirit, not of the flesh.  We have a new nature, based on doing God's will, not the will of the world. 

In the third chapter of John, we find the heart of Christianity.  Some things we may debate, but there is one fundamental that cannot be debated, and that is that you must be born again.  Nicodemus, a Pharisee who was a leader of the Jews, came to Jesus by night.  He was curious about Jesus, but didn't want to come to Him when a lot of people might see him.  We cannot come to Jesus in secret.  We must openly confess Him to the world.  Nicodemus acknowledged Jesus as a teacher sent from God.  He recognized that no one could perform the miracles Jesus had without God's power.  It is not enough that we recognize Jesus as simply a teacher sent from God, an extraordinary man, or anything less than the Only Begotten Son of God.  There are those who acknowledge Jesus as being a prophet, a good man, and a historical figure, but they see Him as only a man.  We must acknowledge Him as the Son of God if He is to be our Savior.   Jesus' response to Nicodemus in verse three was, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."  There is not a should be or might be or could be, but a must be.  When people say there is any other way to a relationship with God, they are simply wrong.  Nicodemus asked how a man that is old could enter a second time into his mothers womb.  Jesus responded to him in verse five, "Verily,verily, I say unto thee, lest a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God."  This does not mean we must be baptized.  We are born physically, of the water, and we must be born again, of the Spirit.  Then He continued in verse six, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, but that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit."  When we accept Jesus as our Savior, we become of the Spirit, not of the flesh.  We have a new nature, based on doing God's will, not the will of the world.

Jon 2:19

John 2:19 says., Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.  This was Jesus’s answer to the Jews, most likely the religious leaders.  We do not need to ask for signs from God but need to simply follow Him by faith.  The Jews did not understand the significance of the sign He gave.  They were still looking at the physical, not the spiritual.   Verse twenty adds, Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?  They said it took our fathers forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it up in three days?  Verse twenty-one continues, But he spake of the temple of his body. Though Jesus was talking about the temple of His body, we need not doubt that God could have raised the physical temple had that been needed.  Christ was concerned with the physical temple being kept clean, but He was more concerned with the spiritual temple, the body, being kept clean.   Verse twenty-two states, When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.  After His death, burial and resurrection, the disciples remembered what He had said and believed the scripture and what He had said.  We are already past His death, burial and resurrection, so we should be able to see clearly what the Bible teaches us.  Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.  We need to cleanse ourselves of all unrighteousness. Verse twenty-three adds, Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did.  While Jesus was in Jerusalem for the Passover, many people believed in His name and saw the miracles that He did.  If we want to see miracles today, we must first believe in the name of Jesus Verse twenty-four continues, But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men,  Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew the nature of all men.  Though they believed in His power and miracles, they still saw Jesus as someone Who was going to be an earthly ruler.  Verse twenty-five concludes, And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.  Jesus didn’t need anyone to testify for Him, because He understood the nature of men, and they all fell short of being what God had created them to be.  Though we are to witness for Jesus, He is not dependent on our proving Who He is.