John 3 Who is Jesus?

PDF File. John Chapter 3[add_to_cart id=”2695″]

Who is Jesus?

1. Verse 1
2. Why did Nicodemus come to Jesus by night? What is significant about the night?
   1. Why does he call Jesus a great teacher? Because he performs miracles.
   2. Do you think there is a difference between a miracle and a sign? If so what and why?
   3. Read Matthew 12:39 is a figura umbrae of the only sign of Christ. Do you think Jonas’ endured three days and three nights in the belly of the whale just to be a figura umbrae of Christ’s death and stay in
3. …being born again… What happens here is that Nicodemus comes to Jeses acknowledging only that his is a great teacher. He tries to flatter him with the complement about ‘miraculous signs.’ Jesus simply and gently corrects him here. Nicodemus is talking about about signs and miracles to a someone he thinks is a great teacher, while Jesus, the Son of God hits Nicodemus squarely with the fact that there is only one way to be saved! We acknowledge Jesus today in three ways.
   1. Just another religious kook.
   2. A great teacher in the brotherhood of great teachers in other religions
   3. The Son of God
   4. Read C. S. Lewis: “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
4.  verse 4
5. …water and spirit…
6. …born of spirit…
7. How are we born again?
8.  How can you spot someone who’s been born again. Galatians – 5:22
9. verse 9
10. verse 10
11.  Who is the ‘we’ here?
12.  What do you think about this ‘heavenly things’
13.  What do you think about this verse? Third heaven? -Heb 8:1 ‘set’ : 2523. καθίζω kathizo, kath-id´-zo; another (active) form for 2516; to seat down, i.e. set (figuratively, appoint); intransitively, to sit (down); figuratively, to settle (hover, dwell): — continue, set, sit (down), tarry.
14.  …what do you think about the snake… Num 21:8,9. Why do we have to ‘look upon the snake?” What does ‘believes in’ entail?
15.  verse 15
16. John 3:16…
17.  verse 17
18. Where do we stand with God the moment we are born, and from our perspective? …what is the only sin that God cannot forgive
19.  Why do criminals, even those that are brazen in the criminal acts cover themselves and try to prevent people from seeing them?
20. How do we know that we ourselves are born again? We examine ourselves under the light! We seek for God to sow use our shortcomings! We long to be free from THE black mark of human depravity. Bring in the two parts of faith. Tell the story of Lewis and the dark toolshed.
21. Those who live by truth seek the light.
22. Jesus spends time with the discilples in the countryside and baptizes.
23. John is baptizing nearby also.
24. This was before John was imprisoned.
25. John’s disciples argued with a Jew(s) about ceremonial washing.
26. John’s disciples come to him a little irked about Jesus baptizing because why?
27. What was John’s reply? A man can only receive what is given him from heaven…
    1. Luke 19:26 For I say unto you, That unto every one which hath shall be given; and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him.
    2. Matthew Henry. Luke 8:4-21. There are many very needful and excellent rules and cautions for hearing the word, in the parable of the sower, and the application of it. Happy are we, and for ever indebted to free grace, if the same thing that is a parable to others, with which they are only amused, is a plain truth to us, by which we are taught and governed. We ought to take heed of the things that will hinder our profiting by the word we hear; to take heed lest we hear carelessly and slightly, lest we entertain prejudices against the word we hear; and to take heed to our spirits after we have heard the word, lest we lose what we have gained. The gifts we have, will be continued to us or not, as we use them for the glory of God, and the good of our brethren. Nor is it enough not to hold the truth in unrighteousness; we should desire to hold forth the word of life, and to shine, giving light to all around. Great encouragement is given to those who prove themselves faithful hearers of the word, by being doers of the work. Christ owns them as his relations.
    3. Matt. 25:14   For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. 15 And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey. 16 Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents. 17 And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two. 18 But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord’s money. 19 After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them. 20 And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. 21 His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. 22 He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them. 23 His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. 24 Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed: 25 And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine. 26 His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: 27 Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. 28 Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. 29 For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. 30 And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
28. John reminds them of what he has told them…he is not the Christ but is sent to prepare the way before him.
29. John is the best man at the wedding! And for the marriage of the Church to Christ is what he longs!
30. John knows that his calling has produced a swift work, but hat he must now decrease…what could John have done?
31. John is telling us that Jesus is the one that came down from Heaven…see verse 13. John acknowledges that he is mere dust from the ground. What is the substance of our soul? Where is the source of pain? Where is the source of animal pain? Is the presence of pain what marks a created entity as one that has a soul?
32. What is John talking about here? I mean people are being baptized and responding to the draw of the Holy Spirit? I think the context here means he is talking about his disciples not believing in Jesus Christ.
33. John tells them that he accepts Jesus as the Christ.
34. Perichoresis; you may as well say that it means the presence of the Holy Spirit without limit!
35. Even in families with the best of dynamics between individual members, there are boundaries. Each has their own ‘stuff’ and ‘turf’ and sphere of occupation. The bond of the Holy Spirit links the Father and the Son without anything being withheld between them. Everything that Father is and has is safely bestowed with the Son. Everything the Son is to do, is surely to be executed exactly as the Father wishes.
36. Hell is locked from the inside!