THE FADING OF LIGHT
Opening Prayer
Lord God, I ask for wisdom to understand what you want to say to me through your Word today.
Read JOHN 3:1–21
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Jesus Teaches Nicodemus
3 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.[a]”
4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit[b] gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You[c] 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.”[d]
9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, 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.[e] 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,[f] 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”[g]
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 they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people 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 their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
Footnotes
- John 3:3 The Greek for again also means from above; also in verse 7.
- John 3:6 Or but spirit
- John 3:7 The Greek is plural.
- John 3:8 The Greek for Spirit is the same as that for wind.
- John 3:13 Some manuscripts Man, who is in heaven
- John 3:14 The Greek for lifted up also means exalted.
- John 3:15 Some interpreters end the quotation with verse 21.
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
What persuaded you to come to faith in Jesus? Was it a carefully planned presentation, an unplanned, off the cuff, encounter, or simply reading and responding to God’s Word…?It’s tempting to think sometimes that if we could just find the right way to present the message of the gospel, then people would understand the attraction of Jesus and make the decision to follow him. This passage tells us otherwise. Here, Nicodemus is granted a one-to-one audience with Jesus himself who explains that a person ‘must be born again’ (v. 7), but Nicodemus just doesn’t understand (v. 10). Israel’s teacher (v. 10) comes to Jesus at night (v. 2) and remains firmly in the dark about God’s unfolding new creation in Christ.
Do you think that Nicodemus simply can’t understand Jesus’ teaching, or that he refuses to do so? Jesus’ insistence that entry into God’s kingdom is dependent not on physical birth into Judaism, but on responding in faith to him as Messiah at the prompting of the Spirit (vv. 3–8,13–18), would certainly have posed a major challenge to Nicodemus’ thinking as a leading figure in the religious establishment (v. 1). Rather than judge Nicodemus, however, we would do better to reflect long and hard on the extent to which our own concern to guard Christian truth is actually an attempt to contain and control the wind of the Spirit that ‘blows wherever it pleases’ (v. 8).
Apply
What might be the implications of this passage for both personal and church approaches to evangelism?
Closing prayer
Holy Spirit, guide me to those with whom you would have me share Jesus and give me whatever words and actions you choose to make an eternal difference.
Book and Author Intros
Extras
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