Vitality
Jesus had a lot to say about the nature and quality of this “Life.” Many of the ways He described it suggest that it is characterized by a “New Vitality.” It is not the cold, rigid, unappealing way of life so often associated with religion. It is not religion. It is a vital relationship with the Creator, Lord of the universe!
When talking with a woman beside a well outside the Samaritan Village of Sychar he told her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” (John 4:10) He repeated this in verse 14. “(W)hoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Later, at a Festival in Jerusalem, He stood in a public place and loudly declared, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” (John 17: 37 & 38) This time John explains the metaphor. “By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.” (verse 39) This is a vivid description – a word picture – of what it will be like when the Holy Spirit enters our lives.
The greatest Teacher of all, with inexhaustible imagery at His disposal, uses the metaphor of “springs” and “streams” of water, to paint this picture of the “His new kind of Life.” And anyone who’s familiar with arid places knows what streams and rivers do to a desert. They create an oasis. So life, in the Spirit, is a veritable oasis not just for the one in whom the Spirit lives but the people around them.
The compelling quality of this “Life” He offers is more dramatically emphasized in the broadly emphatic language of John 10:10. Describing Himself as “the Good Shepherd,” Jesus says, “I have come that they – ‘my sheep’ – may have life, and have it to the full.” The Greek word translated “full,” – “abundantly” in other translations – is one of those “broad stroke” words. Its root meaning is “beyond.” This “Life,” is “beyond.” “Beyond what,” someone might ask? “Beyond” just about any measure we might apply to quality of life. In the day-to-day common use of this word ideas like “superabundant;” “excessive;” “exceeding;” “very highly;” “beyond measure;” “superfluous:” “lavish;” were being communicated. THE MESSAGE paraphrase translates Jesus statement, “I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.” Jesus is telling us that His Life for us is simply “beyond” whatever measure of well-being we might have. Our Lord fills the “cups” of His followers lavishly!
Sixteen times, in his biography, John recalls Jesus describing this “New Life,” as “eternal.” While it has a beginning, this “life in the Spirit,” is endless. It is “forever.”
On top of all of this Jesus spends a lot of time, particularly in His final
days with His friends, insisting, emphatically that “Life” with Him – “in Him” – is joy filled. At the Seder table the night before His rigged trial and crucifixion, He told His friends, “I have told you this – these things I have been teaching you – so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” (John 15:11) Using imagery most anyone can relate to He frankly describes how His “joy” will come not despite certain hard times but as a direct by product of such pain and suffering.
“I tell you the truth; you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.” (John 16:20 – 22)
“Ask,” He assured them, “and you will receive …” Whatever you receive from me will result in, “your joy” being “complete.” (John 16:24) And when He prayed for His followers that night He assured His Father, and ours, “I’m saying these things in the world’s hearing so my people can experience my joy completed in them.” (John 17:13 & 14 THE MESSAGE) There is no question but that “joy” is the intended experience of people who have been “born from above.” The “kingdom of heaven,” is a joy filled world! “Joy,” C.S. Lewis writes, “is the serious business of Heaven.”
People “born from above” learn, from Jesus the Life Master, how to live in the “oasis” of His present “Kingdom.” They learn, early in their “walk” with Him, that theirs is an endless life and they live accordingly. They find a quality of character being forged in them that sharpens their perception of the “joy” that can be discovered even in their suffering. More and more often they are lighthearted and joyfully expectant no matter what is going on in the “kingdoms of this world,” that surround them, threatening to overwhelm and destroy them.
Here ends John’s telling of the “Greatest Story Ever Told.” No, it isn’t the end of the story. For this story is the real “Never Ending Story.” Day after day the birth we celebrate Christmas after Christmas is celebrated far beyond the crèche in your Home or neighborhood or Church. This very day, this exact moment, somewhere in the world – perhaps in your heart – someone is being “born from above.” And the epilogue to the Christmas story, which John carefully tells, is retold. It is a story “Forever told”!
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
LifeLog - 12.19.07 - The Greatest Story Ever Told: Forever Told 6.
God With Us … In Us
Probably the most comprehensive and detailed description of this “birth of the Spirit” is what Jesus said about it during His extensive conversation around the Seder table on the night of His trial.
The conversation takes up five chapters in all; John 13 through 17. Chapters 14 through 16 contain numerous references to the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus’ followers. In order to fully see the description we need to break it down into a sequential view of the points He made.
He begins with a statement,
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him
and have seen him.”
This point seems clear enough. To know Jesus is to know God. Knowing “me” he states, is to “know my Father as well.” So, knowing “me” is to know “Him.” Seeing “me” is to have “seen Him.”
Phillip, one of His followers, obviously didn’t get it. His request, which follows immediately on Jesus affirmation of His unity with the Father, shows how much a man “of this world” he really was. His and his Friends’ ideas of God’s ultimate plans were like those of Nicodemus and other Jews. They expected a dramatic world takeover. Phillip and his fellows believed they’d been following the “Hope of Israel;” “Messiah.” They further believed that, with the takeover, they would be key players in the conquest and the New World Order. That’s why, frequently, they argued about who was going to be “greatest” in this new Kingdom. So he asked for something you might expect he’d want. “Lord show us the Father and that will be enough.” Show us the Father. Phillip wanted something dramatic. He knew what happened when Moses made a similar request. And He wanted something like that to happen now. Quite likely he was expecting that the appearance of the Father would, inevitably, set in motion the phenomenal events he was still expecting. But Jesus would have nothing to do with it. He pressed the point He made earlier.
“Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone
who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you
believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not
just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.”
The point is clear and the principal issue is our relationship with Jesus.
- He and Father God are one and the same person. The work that Jesus does is the exact
same work that the Father is doing. “Heaven,” is “opened.” Heaven and Jesus are fully
co-operating in the work of the “Kingdom of God.” Anyone who truly “knows” Jesus
understands this profound unity that exists between Father and Son. To see one is to see
the other.
His next points add new meaning to His earlier teaching about our need to be “born of the Spirit.” He says,
“If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give
you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept
him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and
will be in you.”
There are three critical points here.
- Love for Jesus involves taking what He says seriously and acting on it. If He asks us to
do certain things we’ll do them simply because we love Him and want to please Him.
- If we do what He asks, out of this loving desire to please Him, He will give us another
“Counselor,” someone to hereafter assume the role He’s filled in our lives while here in
person.
- That “Counselor” is the Spirit of truth. The same Spirit that was given to Him “without
measure,” will be given to us. We must get this! The Spirit will be “with” us and “in” us.
This is what being born of the Spirit is. The Spirit who empowered and directed Jesus takes
up residence at the core of our being – spirit/heart/will – and assumes the role of Jesus.
At this point Jesus takes us to a whole new level. He says, “I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you.”
- Jesus has been talking about going somewhere. He’s told His followers that they’ll have
someone else to fill the place He’s occupied in their lives. But now, He’s saying He will
“come” to them. The only explanation for this seeming ambivalence is that He’s teaching
something about His and the Spirit’s relationship. And so He is.
The lesson becomes a bit clearer in a following statement.
“If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to
him and make our home with him.”
- This is the most direct statement Jesus has made yet about His and the Father’s
relationship with the Holy Spirit. Just a few sentences earlier He’s told these Friends that
the Holy Spirit will soon come in His place. Then He says that the Spirit’s coming would be
one and the same thing as His coming. Now He’s teaching them that the Spirit’s coming is
one and the same thing as the coming of both Himself and the Father. And, their coming,
like that of the Spirit, will be “forever.” They are coming to “make their home” with the one
in whom “what they want done is being done.”
Just in case you think that the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is not as clear as I’ve suggested the following statements establish it to be so with increasing certainty. “… (T)he Counselor, the Holy Spirit,” He says, “whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”
- As Jesus was the Teacher, the ultimate “Word” from God,” – in every lesson He taught
doing the work of the Father,” – the “Counselor, the Holy Spirit,” will “teach” them “all
things.” He will “remind” them of “everything” Jesus “said to them.” The work of the Spirit
will be the work of the Son which is the work of the Father.
In Chapter 15 verse 26 Jesus says, “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, He will testify about me.”
- Jesus is now stating that He will “send” the “Counselor … from the Father.” Just moments
before He had said that He would ask the Father and the Father would “give” the
Counselor. Now He asserts that He “will send” “the Spirit of truth.” These three are so
intimately interrelated that to talk about one is to talk about the other.
Jesus makes the final and conclusive statement in Chapter 16 verses 12 through 15.
“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit
of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak
only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by
taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine.
That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.”
Here is the summary.
- The Spirit works with “what is mine,” Jesus insists. “What is mine,” is “all that belongs to
the Father.” These three are all working together. Their material, their work, their
objectives are the same. Of course! They are one. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit are
one. To have the Spirit “in” us is to have “Father” and “Son” in us. The Holy Spirit has
“come upon” us. The “power” of the “Most High has overshadowed us.” This is the
detailed description of what a “birth from above” is all about. It is, what St. Paul described
as a “mystery” revealed. It is “Christ in you the hope of Glory.” (See Colossians 1:26 & 27)
Only someone living this “new” kind of life is capable of “seeing” – looking on – “the Kingdom of God.” Certainly it is the only kind of life that will survive and flourish in such a “Kingdom.” “The Spirit gives birth to spirit.” Such “spiritual” life will not “perish.” Jesus said it. And most anyone familiar with the Bible remembers the statement.
“God loves the world so much that He gave His only Son that whosoever believes in Him
shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
Some time later, in a prayer, Jesus makes a most enlightening statement. Remember, He’s praying.
“Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom you have sent.” (John 17:3)
The spiritual life Jesus is teaching us about is “eternal.”
Moreover it has a singular focus. It is bent on “knowing” God; Father and Son. Jesus said pretty much the same thing while encouraging people to stop worrying about the stuff we usually worry about.
“So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we
wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you
need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be
given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:31 – 33)
To “seek” someone’s Kingdom is to pursue an understanding of the nature of things under their rule. The true “seeker” wants to “know” the ruler personally as well. But beyond that someone who “seeks” a Kingdom is “searching” for a destiny; a way of life they can trust for safety, freedom, and well-being. The King they choose will be someone they’ve come to believe they can trust their lives with. Jesus is teaching that it is only when we trust all aspects of our lives to the Father’s Sovereign control that we will “know” Him well. And it makes perfect sense. If the one and only God is “in us,” there is no further place for any illusions that we might be the masters of our own “destiny.” He is fully in charge. Then and only then is He free to reveal Himself to us completely. Then and only then will we really “know” Him. Finally, we know what it is like to live with “the Holy Spirit” at work in us; “overshadowed by the Most High.” With that we “know” the Father and what it is like to be His “children.” As “children of the Heavenly Father,” we discover we are Christ’s brothers and sisters. With the Father, our Lord Jesus, and the Spirit - God - alive in us we find we are gradually becoming like Jesus Himself. Usually we're the last ones to notice. But it's happening. We and the “Kingdom of the Heavens” are in growing collaboration. We are in lock step on more and more issues, daily. The “Heavens” have been “opened.” Heavenly beings “ascend and descend on” us continually. We are “filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:19) Everyday it is more apparent, to those who observe us, that we “have been with Jesus.” Our presence is perceived as the presence of someone “filled with the Spirit.” The Kingdom, flourishing in us quietly but certainly, asserts its influence in the world; among the people where we live. People we interact with are coming under His rule. When He returns business in us and such people will simply go on as usual. After all we will have been becoming “the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.” Then and there, on the foundation of those hearts, He will finally “make everything new.”
Probably the most comprehensive and detailed description of this “birth of the Spirit” is what Jesus said about it during His extensive conversation around the Seder table on the night of His trial.
The conversation takes up five chapters in all; John 13 through 17. Chapters 14 through 16 contain numerous references to the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus’ followers. In order to fully see the description we need to break it down into a sequential view of the points He made.
He begins with a statement,
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him
and have seen him.”
This point seems clear enough. To know Jesus is to know God. Knowing “me” he states, is to “know my Father as well.” So, knowing “me” is to know “Him.” Seeing “me” is to have “seen Him.”
Phillip, one of His followers, obviously didn’t get it. His request, which follows immediately on Jesus affirmation of His unity with the Father, shows how much a man “of this world” he really was. His and his Friends’ ideas of God’s ultimate plans were like those of Nicodemus and other Jews. They expected a dramatic world takeover. Phillip and his fellows believed they’d been following the “Hope of Israel;” “Messiah.” They further believed that, with the takeover, they would be key players in the conquest and the New World Order. That’s why, frequently, they argued about who was going to be “greatest” in this new Kingdom. So he asked for something you might expect he’d want. “Lord show us the Father and that will be enough.” Show us the Father. Phillip wanted something dramatic. He knew what happened when Moses made a similar request. And He wanted something like that to happen now. Quite likely he was expecting that the appearance of the Father would, inevitably, set in motion the phenomenal events he was still expecting. But Jesus would have nothing to do with it. He pressed the point He made earlier.
“Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone
who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you
believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not
just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.”
The point is clear and the principal issue is our relationship with Jesus.
- He and Father God are one and the same person. The work that Jesus does is the exact
same work that the Father is doing. “Heaven,” is “opened.” Heaven and Jesus are fully
co-operating in the work of the “Kingdom of God.” Anyone who truly “knows” Jesus
understands this profound unity that exists between Father and Son. To see one is to see
the other.
His next points add new meaning to His earlier teaching about our need to be “born of the Spirit.” He says,
“If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give
you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept
him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and
will be in you.”
There are three critical points here.
- Love for Jesus involves taking what He says seriously and acting on it. If He asks us to
do certain things we’ll do them simply because we love Him and want to please Him.
- If we do what He asks, out of this loving desire to please Him, He will give us another
“Counselor,” someone to hereafter assume the role He’s filled in our lives while here in
person.
- That “Counselor” is the Spirit of truth. The same Spirit that was given to Him “without
measure,” will be given to us. We must get this! The Spirit will be “with” us and “in” us.
This is what being born of the Spirit is. The Spirit who empowered and directed Jesus takes
up residence at the core of our being – spirit/heart/will – and assumes the role of Jesus.
At this point Jesus takes us to a whole new level. He says, “I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you.”
- Jesus has been talking about going somewhere. He’s told His followers that they’ll have
someone else to fill the place He’s occupied in their lives. But now, He’s saying He will
“come” to them. The only explanation for this seeming ambivalence is that He’s teaching
something about His and the Spirit’s relationship. And so He is.
The lesson becomes a bit clearer in a following statement.
“If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to
him and make our home with him.”
- This is the most direct statement Jesus has made yet about His and the Father’s
relationship with the Holy Spirit. Just a few sentences earlier He’s told these Friends that
the Holy Spirit will soon come in His place. Then He says that the Spirit’s coming would be
one and the same thing as His coming. Now He’s teaching them that the Spirit’s coming is
one and the same thing as the coming of both Himself and the Father. And, their coming,
like that of the Spirit, will be “forever.” They are coming to “make their home” with the one
in whom “what they want done is being done.”
Just in case you think that the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is not as clear as I’ve suggested the following statements establish it to be so with increasing certainty. “… (T)he Counselor, the Holy Spirit,” He says, “whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”
- As Jesus was the Teacher, the ultimate “Word” from God,” – in every lesson He taught
doing the work of the Father,” – the “Counselor, the Holy Spirit,” will “teach” them “all
things.” He will “remind” them of “everything” Jesus “said to them.” The work of the Spirit
will be the work of the Son which is the work of the Father.
In Chapter 15 verse 26 Jesus says, “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, He will testify about me.”
- Jesus is now stating that He will “send” the “Counselor … from the Father.” Just moments
before He had said that He would ask the Father and the Father would “give” the
Counselor. Now He asserts that He “will send” “the Spirit of truth.” These three are so
intimately interrelated that to talk about one is to talk about the other.
Jesus makes the final and conclusive statement in Chapter 16 verses 12 through 15.
“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit
of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak
only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by
taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine.
That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.”
Here is the summary.
- The Spirit works with “what is mine,” Jesus insists. “What is mine,” is “all that belongs to
the Father.” These three are all working together. Their material, their work, their
objectives are the same. Of course! They are one. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit are
one. To have the Spirit “in” us is to have “Father” and “Son” in us. The Holy Spirit has
“come upon” us. The “power” of the “Most High has overshadowed us.” This is the
detailed description of what a “birth from above” is all about. It is, what St. Paul described
as a “mystery” revealed. It is “Christ in you the hope of Glory.” (See Colossians 1:26 & 27)
Only someone living this “new” kind of life is capable of “seeing” – looking on – “the Kingdom of God.” Certainly it is the only kind of life that will survive and flourish in such a “Kingdom.” “The Spirit gives birth to spirit.” Such “spiritual” life will not “perish.” Jesus said it. And most anyone familiar with the Bible remembers the statement.
“God loves the world so much that He gave His only Son that whosoever believes in Him
shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
Some time later, in a prayer, Jesus makes a most enlightening statement. Remember, He’s praying.
“Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom you have sent.” (John 17:3)
The spiritual life Jesus is teaching us about is “eternal.”
Moreover it has a singular focus. It is bent on “knowing” God; Father and Son. Jesus said pretty much the same thing while encouraging people to stop worrying about the stuff we usually worry about.
“So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we
wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you
need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be
given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:31 – 33)
To “seek” someone’s Kingdom is to pursue an understanding of the nature of things under their rule. The true “seeker” wants to “know” the ruler personally as well. But beyond that someone who “seeks” a Kingdom is “searching” for a destiny; a way of life they can trust for safety, freedom, and well-being. The King they choose will be someone they’ve come to believe they can trust their lives with. Jesus is teaching that it is only when we trust all aspects of our lives to the Father’s Sovereign control that we will “know” Him well. And it makes perfect sense. If the one and only God is “in us,” there is no further place for any illusions that we might be the masters of our own “destiny.” He is fully in charge. Then and only then is He free to reveal Himself to us completely. Then and only then will we really “know” Him. Finally, we know what it is like to live with “the Holy Spirit” at work in us; “overshadowed by the Most High.” With that we “know” the Father and what it is like to be His “children.” As “children of the Heavenly Father,” we discover we are Christ’s brothers and sisters. With the Father, our Lord Jesus, and the Spirit - God - alive in us we find we are gradually becoming like Jesus Himself. Usually we're the last ones to notice. But it's happening. We and the “Kingdom of the Heavens” are in growing collaboration. We are in lock step on more and more issues, daily. The “Heavens” have been “opened.” Heavenly beings “ascend and descend on” us continually. We are “filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:19) Everyday it is more apparent, to those who observe us, that we “have been with Jesus.” Our presence is perceived as the presence of someone “filled with the Spirit.” The Kingdom, flourishing in us quietly but certainly, asserts its influence in the world; among the people where we live. People we interact with are coming under His rule. When He returns business in us and such people will simply go on as usual. After all we will have been becoming “the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.” Then and there, on the foundation of those hearts, He will finally “make everything new.”
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
LifeLog - 12.18.07 - The Greatest Story Ever Told: Forever Told 5.
New Life
It all began with a strong affirmation of Jesus stature as a Teacher “from God.” The weight of the acclaim was great. The man who gave it was, himself, a knowledgeable man – a Pharisee who could legitimately assert that he not only knew all Jewish Scripture and commentary, but practiced it “blamelessly” (See Philippians 3:5). He was, also, a “member of the Jewish ruling Council” (John 3:1)
Jesus met this prestigious man’s recognition with a direct, almost disrespectful declaration. “I tell you the truth, no one can see the Kingdom of God unless he is born from above.” Later Jesus would say to this man’s inquisitive colleagues, “the Kingdom of God is within you.” Here, much earlier in His public life, He is essentially saying the same thing. The rule of God begins on the inside of a person. His way of teaching this radical truth is to reiterate what John had said about Him earlier. He had the authority to give, to anyone who believed in Him, the right to become a “child of God, … born of God.” (John 1:13) In order for someone to “see the Kingdom of God,” the “Holy Spirit” must “come on them, and the power of the Most High overshadow them,” and they must be born, “a child of God.” (Luke 1:35) It may seem irreverent, even heretical, to use the explanation of Jesus virgin birth in this context. But that is, essentially, what Jesus did.
This man, who first heard the declaration that “birth from above,” was necessary if anyone wanted to “see the Kingdom of God,” was, as you might expect, baffled. “How,” he protested, “can a man be born when he is old?” He even got a bit sarcastic. “Surely he cannot enter his mother’s womb a second time to be born!” Jesus explained.
“I tell you the truth; no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water
and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You
shouldnot be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 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.” (John 3:5 – 8)
This is not about obstetrics and gynecology. This is about spiritual things. It’s about supernatural things. Just as, in the waters of baptism, He, Jesus, had surrendered himself to the rule of God in His life, so anyone who wishes to be part of the Kingdom of God must be “born of the Spirit.”
Jesus expressed His disappointment with this Pharisee’s surprise by referring to a phenomenon they both would understand. “The wind,” he said, “blows where it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.” In referring to the wind Jesus was not only appealing to Nicodemus common sense. He was also referring to his scholarly sense. Jesus and Nicodemus were both fluent in Greek. They both knew – their Bible was the Greek Septuagint – that the Greek word for Spirit and wind was one and the same pneuma. And they both knew that it was this pneuma that moved over the abyss at creation. They, together, knew that the “breath of God,” is the source of all life. Still Nicodemus was confused. “How can this be?” he asked. With this Jesus challenged Nicodemus. “You are Israel’s teacher and you do not understand these things?” Jesus seems to be a little testy here. But He’s justifiably disturbed. Nicodemus, like his fellows, had been missing critical aspects of God’s purpose as it was explained in their Scriptures. Because they had interpreted what God was attempting to communicate to them from a nationalistic, political, economic perspective they had missed the spiritual implications of God’s word to them. This prejudicial and inaccurate understanding of the Scriptures was especially obvious with regard to spiritual matters such as Jesus is now attempting to explain. Nicodemus really should have known better. At least three times in their sacred writings God had revealed His intention to “rebirth” His chosen people. The first is in Jeremiah’s prophecy. In chapter 31 verses 33 and 34 the prophet says,
“‘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. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a
man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the
least of them to the greatest,’ declares the LORD.”
Transformed minds and hearts; a complete, intimate, personal knowledge of God: this is God’s intention for His people. The second and third instances in which God affirms this design for the people He’s chosen are in the prophecy of Ezekiel. In chapter 11 verses 19 and 20 he says,
“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. Then they will follow my
decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their
God.”
Then, in chapter 36 verses 24 – 27 his message is even more emphatic.
“I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring
you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be
clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 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. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to
follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”
The theme is the same in each of these messages. God intends to change the hearts – the spirits – of His people. Jesus and Nicodemus had both memorized these passages. Jesus was disturbed that this “teacher in Israel,” and all his fellows completely missed its significance.
Have we missed its significance? Do we understand that we must “be born from above?” Does the idea of the “Holy Spirit” coming on us and “the power of the Most High overshadowing us,” really make sense to us? Can we truthfully say that we have grasped the meaning of Christ’s words, “The Spirit gives birth to spirit”? There’s no doubt Jesus is insisting on the absolute necessity for us to not only believe it but experience it.
It all began with a strong affirmation of Jesus stature as a Teacher “from God.” The weight of the acclaim was great. The man who gave it was, himself, a knowledgeable man – a Pharisee who could legitimately assert that he not only knew all Jewish Scripture and commentary, but practiced it “blamelessly” (See Philippians 3:5). He was, also, a “member of the Jewish ruling Council” (John 3:1)
Jesus met this prestigious man’s recognition with a direct, almost disrespectful declaration. “I tell you the truth, no one can see the Kingdom of God unless he is born from above.” Later Jesus would say to this man’s inquisitive colleagues, “the Kingdom of God is within you.” Here, much earlier in His public life, He is essentially saying the same thing. The rule of God begins on the inside of a person. His way of teaching this radical truth is to reiterate what John had said about Him earlier. He had the authority to give, to anyone who believed in Him, the right to become a “child of God, … born of God.” (John 1:13) In order for someone to “see the Kingdom of God,” the “Holy Spirit” must “come on them, and the power of the Most High overshadow them,” and they must be born, “a child of God.” (Luke 1:35) It may seem irreverent, even heretical, to use the explanation of Jesus virgin birth in this context. But that is, essentially, what Jesus did.
This man, who first heard the declaration that “birth from above,” was necessary if anyone wanted to “see the Kingdom of God,” was, as you might expect, baffled. “How,” he protested, “can a man be born when he is old?” He even got a bit sarcastic. “Surely he cannot enter his mother’s womb a second time to be born!” Jesus explained.
“I tell you the truth; no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water
and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You
shouldnot be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 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.” (John 3:5 – 8)
This is not about obstetrics and gynecology. This is about spiritual things. It’s about supernatural things. Just as, in the waters of baptism, He, Jesus, had surrendered himself to the rule of God in His life, so anyone who wishes to be part of the Kingdom of God must be “born of the Spirit.”
Jesus expressed His disappointment with this Pharisee’s surprise by referring to a phenomenon they both would understand. “The wind,” he said, “blows where it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.” In referring to the wind Jesus was not only appealing to Nicodemus common sense. He was also referring to his scholarly sense. Jesus and Nicodemus were both fluent in Greek. They both knew – their Bible was the Greek Septuagint – that the Greek word for Spirit and wind was one and the same pneuma. And they both knew that it was this pneuma that moved over the abyss at creation. They, together, knew that the “breath of God,” is the source of all life. Still Nicodemus was confused. “How can this be?” he asked. With this Jesus challenged Nicodemus. “You are Israel’s teacher and you do not understand these things?” Jesus seems to be a little testy here. But He’s justifiably disturbed. Nicodemus, like his fellows, had been missing critical aspects of God’s purpose as it was explained in their Scriptures. Because they had interpreted what God was attempting to communicate to them from a nationalistic, political, economic perspective they had missed the spiritual implications of God’s word to them. This prejudicial and inaccurate understanding of the Scriptures was especially obvious with regard to spiritual matters such as Jesus is now attempting to explain. Nicodemus really should have known better. At least three times in their sacred writings God had revealed His intention to “rebirth” His chosen people. The first is in Jeremiah’s prophecy. In chapter 31 verses 33 and 34 the prophet says,
“‘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. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a
man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the
least of them to the greatest,’ declares the LORD.”
Transformed minds and hearts; a complete, intimate, personal knowledge of God: this is God’s intention for His people. The second and third instances in which God affirms this design for the people He’s chosen are in the prophecy of Ezekiel. In chapter 11 verses 19 and 20 he says,
“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. Then they will follow my
decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their
God.”
Then, in chapter 36 verses 24 – 27 his message is even more emphatic.
“I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring
you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be
clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 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. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to
follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”
The theme is the same in each of these messages. God intends to change the hearts – the spirits – of His people. Jesus and Nicodemus had both memorized these passages. Jesus was disturbed that this “teacher in Israel,” and all his fellows completely missed its significance.
Have we missed its significance? Do we understand that we must “be born from above?” Does the idea of the “Holy Spirit” coming on us and “the power of the Most High overshadowing us,” really make sense to us? Can we truthfully say that we have grasped the meaning of Christ’s words, “The Spirit gives birth to spirit”? There’s no doubt Jesus is insisting on the absolute necessity for us to not only believe it but experience it.
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