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April 9, 2017

ADULT SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON

GOD’S SAVING LOVE IN CHRIST

MINISTRY INVOCATION

“O God: We give thanks to You for the manifold blessings to us. You did not

have to bless us but You did. We shall remain eternally grateful. Amen.”

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW AND UNDERSTAND

We will explore the story of Nicodemus, who learned from Jesus what it

means “to be born again,” appreciate how God’s love offers salvation rather

than condemnation, and seek to live as spiritually reborn people who know

and respond to God’s love.

THE APPLIED FULL GOSPEL DISTINCTIVE

We believe in the indwelling of the Holy Ghost for all believers and that the

Holy Ghost verifies and validates the Believer as part of the Body of Christ.

Background Scripture –

Key Verse –

Lesson Scripture – John 3:1–21 (NKJV)

Christ Witnesses to Nicodemus

3 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 are a teacher come

from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, 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? Can he enter a

second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the

Spirit, he cannot enter 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 marvel 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 cannot

tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 9 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know

these things? 11 Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what

We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. 12 If I have told you earthly things and

you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has

ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is

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in heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son

of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal

life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever

believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His

Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is

condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of

God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men

loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing

evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But

he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they

have been done in God.”

COMMENTARY

3:1 Nicodemus was an important man, a Pharisee and a ruler of the Jews.

John’s description of him marks him not merely as a community leader but as

one of the revered seventy, who along with the high priest composed the

Sanhedrin, the equivalent of the Jewish Supreme Court. As the story

progresses, it becomes clear to the reader that this leader of the Jews actually

serves as a first-class example of why Jesus did not believe in human

believing.

3:2 Nicodemus came to Jesus at night. Although seasonal and day/night

designations can properly be understood as time notations in this Gospel, they

usually are more importantly also symbolic representations of the spiritual

temperature of the people in the story. Light and darkness are conceived as

opposing principles (1:4–5) with darkness in John illustrating the negative

aspects such as the realm of Satan, error, evil, doubt, and unbelief. Some

interpreters might suggest that Nicodemus came to Jesus “at night” to prevent

detection or alternatively that (as an intense rabbi) he studied late into the

night, but most commentators are agreed that the reference to night is a picture

of a man who was in an uneasy state of unbelief or doubt.

Nicodemus’s initiation of the conversation with Jesus reminds us of a perfect

example of Nicodemus’s ironical misunderstanding of Jesus. Nicodemus,

representing his learned group, began by addressing Jesus with the polite title

“Rabbi.” In so doing, he “graciously” acknowledged Jesus as his equal, even

though Jesus would be popularly recognized by council members as one of the

“ignorant,” the working people of the land. Since Jesus had to work with his

hands (a carpenter), He was expected to be unable to spend His time in the

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minute study of the law and in the traditions of the elders. He was, therefore,

not expected to know theology. The irony of John is evidenced, when

Nicodemus in his evaluation concerning Jesus said, “We know.” By the time

Nicodemus had finished with Jesus, however, it was his ignorance rather than

Jesus’ that was clearly evident.

To be fair to Nicodemus, we should note that he was in some ways quite

accurate because, as he said, no one would be able to do the signs Jesus was

doing “if God were not with him.” Signs were pointers to reality, and one of

the important themes of this Gospel is the recurring call of Jesus for people to

recognize the witness being given in the signs. Thus, Nicodemus’s mere

reliance on signs at this stage became an excellent example of the type of

believing that is not really sufficient. Jesus understood the nature of genuine

believing and knowing, and he recognized a façade or pseudo knowledge

when he encountered it. Nicodemus did not realize what he was saying about

knowing!

The fact that the plural for “signs” is once again used together with the fact

that there is a close connection with the earlier temple have led a number of

scholars in suggesting that this is a displaced story from the last week of Jesus’

ministry.

3:3 Jesus’ response to Nicodemus is a play on “ability”; namely, unless one is

born from above, such a person is not able to “see the kingdom of God.” Jesus’

response begins with that familiar Johannine double amēn (lit., “truly, truly”).

It is a clear signal of an important affirmation by Jesus. The phrase “kingdom

of God” is used only here and at verse 5 in the entire Johannine Gospel.

Normally John did not use kingdom terminology because he seems to have

preferred eternal life terminology. The use of kingdom at this point reminds

the reader that John was not unfamiliar with the fact that Jesus employed such

vocabulary in trying to explain the dynamic relationship humans can have

with God.

The story, however, is intriguing because it suggests a misunderstanding on

the part of Nicodemus. When Jesus spoke to Nicodemus, He meant that this

Pharisee should experience birth from God or birth “from above.”

3:4 When Nicodemus heard Jesus’ assertion that he should have a birth

experience, however, his imagination apparently went into high gear, and he

interpreted Jesus’ birth statement as born “again.” A birth other than that like

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his natural birth seems to have been beyond the thinking of Nicodemus. Birth

for him apparently was limited to physical birth.

Yet the concept of birth from above was hardly one that would have been

readily discussed by Jews like Nicodemus. His questioning and puzzlement at

the possibility of being born when one is old or of the reentry into a mother’s

womb (3:4) are quite understandable for one unfamiliar with the regeneration

terminology of the New Testament age.

3:5–8 Jesus responded to Nicodemus’s twofold frustrated question by

providing a more precise statement concerning this birth. He began once again

with a double amēn statement. Then he identified this birth from above as a

birth of water and Spirit. These two words also should not be bifurcated as in

some inadequate folk interpretations of the text where water is equated with

the water of natural birth (either that of the sack in which the baby floats or

the male fluid of the sex act). Water appears with Spirit conjunctively in 3:5,

and flesh is contrasted with Spirit disjunctively in 3:6. Accordingly, water and

flesh should not be equated. In this Johannine context, the combination of

water and Spirit represents birth from above, a picture of life that involves a

direct contrast to Nicodemus’s perspective on life as involving physical

existence. As indicated earlier, the linkage between water and Spirit would

have been familiar to the Jews since both are related to the theme of life. For a

people like the Jews, who lived on the edge of the desert, water was an

indispensable requirement of life and even Christians viewed heaven as

having a life-endued stream flowing from the throne of God. Concerning the

life-giving Spirit, one only needs to be reminded that the breath of God

brought life to Adam), and the Spirit/wind/breath of God brought life to dry

bones.

3:9–10 Nicodemus’s final question to Jesus reveals that he was stuck in an

intellectual and philosophical quagmire of the flesh (earthly realities) and that

his earlier lack of comprehension seems to have deteriorated into helpless

doubt. Jesus’ reply in 3:10 is an excellent example of Johannine patterns of

reversal. Nicodemus, as leader and teacher, 3:10) of the Jews, had come to Jesus

as a seeking “knower.” By the time Jesus asked his first question of

Nicodemus (a man who was filled with questions), it became clear that

Nicodemus was a confused “nonknower.” The irony in the exchange is that

Nicodemus, the earthly teacher, was shown to be a poor learner of the message

of Jesus, the teacher sent from God. Nicodemus was in fact one who did not

know) the core subject matter of his vocation as a Pharisee.

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With the present question, Nicodemus ceases to be important to the evangelist,

and the focus of attention shifts to Jesus and His personal witness.

3:11–12 The overall motif of this section deals with the purpose of Jesus’

coming and with the importance of receiving or of believing in Him. It is

brought into focus by referring to speaking and witnessing, couplets that are

based on knowing and seeing.. The statement obviously is intended to be a

solemn assertion about the nature of bearing witness and the fact that

adequate testimony is rooted in personal experience.

The preceding conversation is pictured as one that took place only between

Jesus and Nicodemus.

3:13 The next three verses provide an answer to Nicodemus’s perplexity and

doubt and expands the Christological significance of the Gospel. The descent

of the Son of Man (3:13), however, is not like the mythological journeys of the

ancient Hellenistic heroes or the mythological formulations of the Gnostics.

The text is rooted in an affirmation that the heavenly realities (3:12) are being

opened to humanity because the divine Son of Man descended into history!

The descent picks up the theme of a preexistent Son of Man in those earlier

Jewish texts, but the descent and ascent of the Son of Man in John is clearly

unlike anything in Jewish or Hellenistic literature. This descent of Jesus, the

Son of Man, involved Jesus becoming human (“flesh,”), an idea totally

rejected by the later Gnostics and, although hinted, actually missed by Jewish

interpreters. Indeed, it was hardly understood by Jesus’ own disciples—until

after the resurrection!

This combination of ascent and descent is part of the great Christological

formulation concerning Jesus, whom John knew had come to earth from

heaven, lived, died, was raised, and is once again with God in heaven. To

understand about heavenly realities therefore, the God-given means is

through “no one but the one” who has descended from heaven (3:13). For John,

with his post-resurrection perspective, the Christian gospel was the only way

to salvation because Jesus alone descended and “has ascended” to heaven. He

knew the whole incarnational story when he started writing.

3:14–15 With the fact of the descent and ascent of Jesus clearly in mind, John

employed another illustrative saying to emphasize his point concerning the

death of Jesus. The “sign” or pole on which Moses placed the bronze snake

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served as a symbol of life to the dying, snake-bitten Israelites of the exodus.

That symbol has been employed here to illustrate the lifting up of Jesus on the

cross as God’s way of providing eternal life to all who believe.

The expression “eternal life” occurs only once and is linked with the concept

of resurrection and is most clearly represented in the later thought

development of the Pharisees. In John the expression probably is best

translated “eternal life,” stressing the qualitative feature of life as over against

mere physical endless life or everlasting life. Such a rendering, however, is not

meant to exclude the idea of life without end because it is also said that those

who eat the bread of life “will live forever.” The point of the Johannine

illustration is the “lifting up” of the Son of Man and the power of God in

giving life to the believer. Beyond that, Jesus was operating according to a

divine imperative. He was “under necessity” to be crucified. The life and

death of Jesus was a model of the meaning of obedience, and the Father later

pointedly affirmed the Son’s obedience in the voice from heaven.

Of course, Jesus is alive and has experienced an “ascent” to heaven. This

evangelist took the death of Jesus seriously because it was in the death of the

Son that God revealed most clearly the loving purpose of the divinely initiated

work of salvation. Verse 16 serves as a statement of fact involving the agency

(the Son) God used to bring salvation to the world. Verse 17 expands on God’s

intention and clearly identifies God’s Purpose in sending the son. Verse 18

provides a pointed reality statement concerning the present nature of

judgment, a reality no reader should fail to understand. When the three verses

are allowed together, the reader begins to grasp the full meaning of the coming

of Jesus and the message of salvation expounded.

Christian salvation has been very costly because it cost God his Son.

Therefore, one does not truly enter the process of salvation unless one

recognizes the incalculable cost and accepts the implications of that cost in

one’s life. The “lifted up” one is God’s gift that must be received by authentic

believing. To come to Jesus like Nicodemus with a superficial view of who

Jesus is will not result in salvation but will lead to confusion and frustration.

John 3:16 can be read from different theological perspectives and has been a

source of different doctrinal positions. The full perspective is that God is the

initiator and principal actor in salvation, and we should never think that

salvation originated with us. God, however, has given humanity a sense of

freedom and requires us to make a choice. Accordingly, people are responsible

for their believing. It is unproductive theological speculation, therefore, to

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minimize either the role of God or of humanity in the salvation process. God’s

purpose in sending his only Son was not to destroy the world or humanity.

God is not angry and self-centered. God is a caring God. Loving-kindness is a

principal characteristic of the God of the covenant. In the New Testament,

God’s purpose in sending Jesus was not to condemn but to build the bridge in

reconciling sacrifice for human beings. God’s goal always has been the

salvation or wholeness of the world. The sin problem is a human one that

since the beginning of time has been repeated continuously.

God’s plan has been to reverse the human problem—namely, to provide the

means by which humanity might be saved. Undoubtedly, God’s desire is that

all might be saved but because of human freedom or choice (“whosoever,”

3:16), all of humanity does not respond in believing acceptance of the Son. As

a result, the rejection of God’s love brings judgment or condemnation.

Although many people think primarily of this Gospel in terms of the bright

side of love, it has a dark side that is perhaps more threatening to the

unbeliever than almost any other document in the New Testament. To

overlook the dark side in John is to miss the full message of the Gospel. God’s

judging is a negative theme that also is foundational to this Gospel and is

obvious in these verses.

What makes human choice so crucial in this Gospel is the immediate nature of

judgment/condemnation. Condemnation is not left to some remote future that

might lull the unbeliever into a comfortable feeling that for a while one can sit

on the fence of un-commitment. John makes it clear that condemnation has

“already” taken place for the unbelievers. The idea is not one of a possible

projected condemnation for the unbeliever but the necessity of escaping an

already existing condemnation.

The authentic believer thus begins to deal immediately with future realities

such as the threat of ultimate death and condemnation. Therefore, the believer

does not need to fear the death threat because the believer’s expectation is a

resurrection to life. But the unbeliever, who in the present time is under

condemnation (3:17), has in the future, only the prospect of a resurrection to

condemnation (5:29). When dealing with condemnation, the Gospel is

genuinely consistent. Condemnation is a present reality that will be clearly

evidenced in the future resurrection. The only way to overcome that

condemnation is to believe in God’s Son and thereby experience the present

reality of the kingdom of God (3:3, 5), that reality called eternal life (3:16).

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3:19–21 Darkness, hating, and doing evil together are set against light, living

by the truth, and the works done through God. The close connection between

doing and being—namely, between practicing good or evil works and the

nature of a person—is an important theological concept in John because

believing is not merely a matter of mental affirmation but of life commitment.

The world hated Jesus and continues to do so not merely because of some

intellectual reason but because the deeds of world-oriented people are evil.

RELATED DISCUSSION TOPICS

CLOSING PRAYER

My God: I am grateful to have found You and kept You in the forefront of my

being. Bless us continually with Your grace and mercy. They represent

bountiful blessings for all of us. Amen.