The Gospel of John 3:1-36

The New Birth

3:1 "Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews;
2 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."
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."
4 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?"
5 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.
6 "That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 "Do not be amazed that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'
8 "The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit."
9 Nicodemus said, "How can these things be?"
10 Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?
11 "Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony.
12 "If I told you of earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
13 "No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descends from heaven: the Son of Man.
14 "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of an be lifted up;
15 so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.
16 "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.
17 "For God did not send the Son of Man into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
18 "He that 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.
19 "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.
20 "For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
21 "But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God."
22 After these thins Jesus and His disciples came int the land of Judea, and there he was spending time with them and baptizing.
23 John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there; and people were coming and being baptized-
24 for John had not yet been thrown into prison.
25 Therefore there arose a discussion on the part of John's disciples with a Jew about purification.
26 And they came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him."
27 John answered and said, "A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven.
28 "You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, 'I am not Christ,' but, 'I have been sent ahead of Him.'
29 "He who has the bride in the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because f the bridegroom's voice. So this joy of mine has been made full.
30 "He must increase, but I must decrease.
31 "He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth s from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.
32 "What He has seen and heard, of that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony.
33 "He who has received His testimony has set his seal to this, that God is true.
34 "For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure.
35 "The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand.
36 "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrth of God abides on him." -John 3:1-36

Wells... We need to break is down into 2 parts.
Part 1 = John 3:1-21
Part 2 = John 3:22-36

Part 1

To refresh our memories a little, let us recall that the Pharisees were the group of Jews who went a little over board with the rules and acted mercilessly and without forgiveness. They were frightening when it came to upholding the Doctrine and adding new rules.

Nicodemus was a Pharisee, but he was one of the few who was also a nice guy. He decided to visit this Jesus individual he had been hearing about -at night. If he went during the day and talked with Jesus, he might be spotted by the other Pharisees who were not a big fan of Jesus since He was changing the rules by saying more emphasis should be placed on compassion and spirit instead of just judgment and punishment.

So Nicodemus went at night to meet Jesus, who he believed to be with God since He was performing miracles. Jesus then attempted to explain to Nicodemus that in order to receive the Spirit from God, he needed to be Baptized or "reborn". This makes sense to everyone in modern times, but back in the day these sorts of notions were usually beyond the scope of man to comprehend. They plowed fields and raised sheep all day -hearing about Spirit and being uplifted and being reborn were things beyond the limitations their minds were confined to.

Nicodemus therefore, like many other people at the time over and over again, took Jesus Literally. He then ought he had to be physically reborn out of his mom's womb. He was confused. In many ways.

Jesus then seemed to make the joke of, "Shouldn't you know this stuff since you're a Pharisee?", which was quite funny.

"The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit."

This part is interesting to me. The Spirit -if I had to describe it -would never be anything concrete. If you want to explain something that is Spiritually oriented, you have to think Expansive, Fluid, Limitless, Flowing, Light, Overwhelming, Uplifting, Grace... So the closest we can come to those terms in Earthly concepts people can comprehend are: Water, Air, Fire, and Light. These things have no real limit and can not be weighed down. They are also sort of mysterious elements in that they can not be contained. Sure, Water can be put in a jar and Fire can put in a lamp -but they are not really trapped in there, just momentarily held. At any point they can be released and at some point evaporate or trail upward. 

People who are Spiritual are kind of "out there". They are hard to understand and bring own to earth. They always seem to be in their own distant world of peace and love... which is weird and mysterious and ethereal. Hence the reason it is good for these sorts of people to have their own jars to be put in so they can have a sense of place in the world -it's called Structure.

Unfortunately Jesus wasn't usually dealing with Spiritual individuals -I imagine they followed Him without question and only left His side out of fear. It was the Spiritless Overly-Structured and Walled-Up people of whatever they declared their Duty to be that Jesus seemed to have difficulties creating common ground with. "If I told you of earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?"

"Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony."

I only repeat this one because my "tutor" said it was important to note the phrase "we" and who it was referring to. I said that since it wasn't in Caps: "We", it was probably just referring to the Disciples. The only other option would be Jesus referring to He, Himself, and God. I didn't think it really mattered either way.

"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of an be lifted up"

This is a Biblical reference to a troy from the Old Testament. I'm sure it will be covered in my blog when we get to that passage.

John 3: 18-21 is what I call a personal Score! for my own wisdom being right on the mark. Personal validation for beliefs I have acquired through reflection is always a great thing. Firstly, Man is not fit to judge since those who are evil are already judged. Meaning, if you're evil you have condemned yourself already by your own actions and beliefs or the lack thereof.

Evil avoids Light. Yes! I made this point a long time ago. I used bullies and men who beat their wives as an example because the only reason they get away with their cruelties is the fact that they keep it in the Dark. They fear that their skeletons will see the light outside of the closet and they will be condemned for it.

I actually felt this way when I was younger. I clinged to the darkness, the anger, the depression, and the negativity even though I knew it was better for me to let it go. I didn't think I'd like the light as much as the dark. I didn't think I would be the same person I was and that I would lose myself to it. I was afraid of who i would be if I wen to the "light-side". But Buddhism taught me the lesson of Letting Go -and I did. It freed me. I was never separated from the Truth, but I was hiding from the Light.

Part 2

This part of the story focuses mostly on John the Baptist. He was the one who was baptizing people before Jesus came to open people's hearts and souls so that they could receive the Words of God when Jesus spoke them. Basically he converted people to Christianity before Jesus showed up.

So at this point, the Jews are seeing John the Baptist baptizing people and Jesus baptizing people and they are confused. They go up to John and say, "Hey why is that other guy baptizing when you are the one who is suppose to be baptizing everyone?"

John hears this a lot from people and calmly tells them, "I'm not Jesus. I was doing God's work before He joined us on Earth. Now He is here. This is Not my show it is His." 

John is humble and says he is enjoying the presence of Jesus and fulfilling his destiny by helping people come to Him.

John 3:31-36 is very complex and simple at the same time. He is showing the power of Spirit over the Earth. Spirit is infinite. Earth is finite. Spirit gives Eternal Life. Earth just gives this current one until we die. Since Jesus is the one who has the Spirit and is leading people to God, without Him people are lost to their own Earthly devices. Without Him, people just have this life to look forward to and everything to dread after it ends. People can't just hear God's words though, they have to Comprehend and Believe it. It is imperative for people to acknowledge and receive the Spirit. Otherwise, they're stuck with just the dirt beneath their feet.