God's Daytimer | Online Bible Studies

John 3:16-36

On God’s Daytimer today we are continuing our study of John chapter 3.

John 3:16-36 (NIV)
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” 22 After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. 23 Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were constantly coming to be baptized. 24 (This was before John was put in prison.) 25 An argument developed between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. 26 They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan–the one you testified about–well, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.” 27 To this John replied, “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven. 28 You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of him.’ 29 The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. 30 He must become greater; I must become less. 31 “The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. 32 He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. 33 The man who has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. 34 For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. 35 The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.”

John 3:16-17

The contrast between the law and grace is amazing. The Law seems to be a very impersonal and dispassionate demand for justice and goodness. And yet God, is love. He is consumed with a passionate love for the world. This passionate love and grace is demonstrated in the giving of His Son Jesus, to make a way for us. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son.

So that through Him, and His death on the cross, we might have eternal life. The idea of eternity carries with it more than just living forever, it is being connected to the very life of God. We become His children!

John 3:18-36

If God hadn’t acted on our behalf, through Christ, we would have no hope. Apart from this life, all are perishing. There is no way to impress God with our own righteousness, trying to tip the cosmic scales in our favor by doing more good things than bad things.

The whole idea of a moral light, demonstrates that man’s response over and over again is to choose darkness. It doesn’t mean that we always choose evil, it just means that we all have sometimes made the choice for evil in our lives. We have chosen sin and selfishness over the right choice or decision. How we respond to Jesus, the true light, ultimately determines the outcome of our destinies.

What about Nicodemus?

We aren’t sure at how he responds to this encounter with Jesus. The story shifts back to John the Baptist and how he willingly steps aside to make way for the ministry of Jesus. We do know that we Nicodemus enters into the story at least twice more. Once in John 7:50-51 where he defends Jesus as not being a heretic.

John 7:50-51 (NLT)
50 Nicodemus, the leader who had met with Jesus earlier, then spoke up. 51 “Is it legal to convict a man before he is given a hearing?” he asked.

He also comes into the story after the crucifixion, taking the body of Christ (along with Joseph of Arimathea) and putting it in the tomb.

John 19:38-42 (NLT)
38 Afterward Joseph of Arimathea, who had been a secret disciple of Jesus (because he feared the Jewish leaders), asked Pilate for permission to take Jesus’ body down. When Pilate gave him permission, he came and took the body away. 39 Nicodemus, the man who had come to Jesus at night, also came, bringing about seventy-five pounds of embalming ointment made from myrrh and aloes. 40 Together they wrapped Jesus’ body in a long linen cloth with the spices, as is the Jewish custom of burial. 41 The place of crucifixion was near a garden, where there was a new tomb, never used before. 42 And so, because it was the day of preparation before the Passover and since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.

John 3:1-17

We are now moving on in our study of the book of John on God’s Daytimer to chapter 3. In this chapter we are going to be introduced to Nicodemus and some very profound truths.

John 3:1-17 (NIV)
1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.” 3 In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” 4 “How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!” 5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” 9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked. 10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven–the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. 16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

John 3:1

Enter Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a religious leader as well as a political leader. These “leaders’ sat in Moses seat over the people of Israel. At this time in Israel’s history they were operating under the rule of the Romans. The Romans collected taxes and garrisoned armies in the countries they occupied, but they allowed those countries to continue to self-govern over most areas. Nicodemus was a very powerful person. His standing as a political leader meant that he would be backed by Rome, and he was also a recognized interpreter of the Law.

John 3:2

While Nicodemus recognized that Jesus had come from God, he comes at night so as not to be seen as making any sort of public recognition of Jesus.

John 3:3

Jesus jump starts the conversation by telling Nicodemus that no one could even see the Kingdom of God unless they are born again.

John 3:4

Nicodemus can’t grasp the strange concept and asks Jesus for clarification by basically saying “What in the world are you talking about”?

John 3:5-15

Jesus response to Nicodemus demonstrates that the revelation of grace and truth that Jesus brings is not foreign to the Old Testament, and that as “Israel’s Teacher”. Nicodemus should not be surprised by them. Consider some of these Old Testament verses:

Jeremiah 31:31-33 (NIV)
31 “The time is coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. 33 “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

Ezekiel 11:19 (NIV)
19 I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.

Ezekiel 36:26 (NIV)
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

These passages talk about a new birth and so the idea had been around a long time. But Nicodemus did not seem to know about this idea, all he knew about was the Law.

His concept of God was faulty because he missed the grace of God, which tells us about the amazing love of God for us in spite of our failures and sin.

John 2:12-25

Let’s look at the rest of John Chapter 2 today on God’s Dayimer:

John 2:12-25 (NIV)
12 After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days. 13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!” 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.” 18 Then the Jews demanded of him, “What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” 20 The Jews replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken. 23 Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name. 24 But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. 25 He did not need man’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man.

Jesus cleanses the temple. The synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) record Jesus cleansing the temple at the end of His ministry. Here John records a cleansing at the beginning of His ministry. The most likely answer is that there were two cleansings. This first cleansing is most likely a fulfillment of Malachi 3:1-3

Malachi 3:1-3 (NIV)
1 “See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the LORD Almighty. 2 But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness,

In verse 17 the disciples are reminded of Psalm 69:9 which says:

Psalms 69:9 (NIV)
9 for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me.

The authorities want proof of His authority to challenge the existing order, but He answers them by talking about His death and resurrection which they don’t understand. His disciples will connect the dots after the fact. Jesus does other miraculous sings while He was there in Jerusalem during the Passover feast, which John does not describe, but many people believed in His name. These people, believed He was doing miraculous signs from God, but they did not see Him as the Messiah and put their faith in Him the way the disciple had after He turned water into wine.