Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.

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The New Birth

John 3:1 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

John 3:2 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.”

John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again (Or from above), he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

John 3:4 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?”

John 3:5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

The water is the physical birth (when the water is broken).

The Spirit is the spiritual birth.

John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

John 3:7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

John 3:8 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.”

• I have had several experiences actually feeling the Spirit of God blow through me. When it happens I suddenly have knowledge and insight I didn’t have prior to that experience.

• Once was when a cautious neighbor invited my husband and I to see their pellet stove. Actually, my husband kept pestering them because he was curious about pellet stoves and how they worked. These neighbors were very offish when it came to going to their house. The moment I saw the pellet stove I felt the Spirit of God blow through me like a wind and I saw a baby being put into that stove.  I was horrified, but like most people, I marked it up as something I would make up in my own head and I ignored every warning. Later, we learned these neighbors were Satan worshipers. Later, we learned the depth of the evil. 

John 3:9 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”

John 3:10 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?

John 3:11 Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness.

John 3:12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

John 3:13 No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.

• Jesus is speaking of Himself.

• Ephesians 4:9-10 (Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill (bg: fulfill) all things.

• Jesus descended from heaven to earth. Jesus will also further descend into sheol after His death. Then he ascended to heaven.

John 3:14 And AS Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even SO must the Son of Man be lifted up, (As The historic Moses, So the prophetic Christ.)

• Jesus is telling Nicodemus about His upcoming death and the type of death He will suffer; crucifixion.

• The serpent in the wilderness: When Jesus hung on the cross he took on Himself the sins that the serpent inflicted on men. Without the death of Jesus, there would be no healing for men.
  
  • Numbers 21:9 So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

• Learning TYPE ALERTS with examples
  • In studying “Types”
    • the two comparative words “AS” and “SO” are forcibly called to our attention.
    • The word “AS” is used for the “Type,” and the word “SO” for the Antitype.
    • The first is historic; the second is prophetic.
      
      • (As) The historic Moses, (So) the prophetic Christ.
        
  • 1 Kings 1:37 As the Lord has been with my lord the king, even so may He be with Solomon, and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord King David.”
    • (As) King David (So) with Solomon
      
  • Isaiah 29:8 It shall even be as when a hungry man dreams, And look—he eats; But he awakes, and his soul is still empty; Or as when a thirsty man dreams, And look—he drinks; But he awakes, and indeed he is faint, And his soul still craves: So the multitude of all the nations shall be, Who fight against Mount Zion.”
    • (As) a hungry man (So) the enemies of Jerusalem
      
  • (As) Jesus forgives (So) Believers need to forgive.

John 3:15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

• Nicodemus must trust in Jesus’ position, authority, identity, and agenda. There is a spiritual world which Nicodemus cannot sense or understand without God’s help.

John 3:16 For (the ONLY existing) God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

• “Begotten” means “Risen from the dead” which is “Born Again” Risen from spiritual death to spiritual life:
  • Psalm 2:7 “I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You
  • 1 Peter 1:3 A Heavenly Inheritance – Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
  • 1 Corinthians 4:15 For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you (raised you up from death to life) through the gospel.
  • Acts 13:33 God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that He has raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second Psalm: ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.’ (According to Acts “begotten” means “raised from the dead”.)
  • Hebrews 5:5 So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him: “You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.”
  • To be the only begotten Son of God means the only Son who was raised from the dead, to clarify for those who believe we are all “sons of God”.
  • Therefore; it is not an event that occurred in Nazareth or Bethlehem, but outside the walls of Jerusalem.

John 3:17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

John 3:18 “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 (identity, authority, position, agenda) of the only begotten Son of God.

John 3:19 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.

John 3:20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.

John 3:21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

John the Baptist Exalts Christ

John 3:22 After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He remained with them and baptized.

John 3:23 Now John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there. And they came and were baptized.

John 3:24 For John had not yet been thrown into prison.

John 3:25 Then there arose a dispute between some of John’s disciples and the Jews about purification.

• The baptism of John was a purification ritual.

John 3:26 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!”

John 3:27 John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven.

John 3:28 You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before Him.’

John 3:29 He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled.

• John the baptizer is the friend of the groom. He is the best man who will present the Jewish bride to Jesus while Paul will present the Gentile bride to Jesus.

Just as Jacob had two wives, so God has two wives: His Jewish bride of the Old Testament (with gentile exceptions), and His Gentile bride of Christ (with Jewish exceptions) in the New Testament. One represents God’s kingdom in heaven (the Bride of Christ) and the other represents God’s kingdom on earth (the Jewish Bride).

• Both are children of faith making them children of Abraham.
  • Galatians 3:8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.”

• To Abraham God promised:
  • Genesis 22:17 blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.

• The stars of heaven are God’s spiritual kingdom while the sand on the seashore is God’s earthly kingdom.

• Concerning the presentation of the bride of Christ Paul said:
  • II Cor 11:2 For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

• Of John the baptizer Jesus said:
  • Matthew 11:11 “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

• Paul is least in the Jewish kingdom (with Gentile exceptions), but greater than John the baptizer in the Gentile kingdom (with Jewish exceptions).

John 3:30 He must increase, but I must decrease.

John 3:31 He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.

John 3:32 And what He has seen and heard, that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony.

John 3:33 He who has received His testimony has certified that God is true.

John 3:34 For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure.

• God gives the Holy Spirit in abundance!
  
  • John 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

• The Holy Spirit gives Wisdom:
  
  • Proverbs 1:20-22
    ²⁰ Wisdom calls aloud (openly) in the street;
    She raises her voice in the open squares.
    ²¹ She cries out in the chief concourses, to the top of the walls, to the head of the multitudes,
    At the openings of the gates in the city
    She speaks her words:
    ²² “How long, you naive ones, will you love simple naivete?
    For scorners delight in their scorning,
    And fools hate knowledge.
    
  • Proverbs 1:23 Surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you.
    
  • James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

• The Holy Spirit gives Peace:
  
  • John 16:33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
    
  • Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
    
  • Titus 3:2 to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men.

• The Holy Spirit gives Love:
  
  • 1 Corinthians 13 The Greatest Gift: Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. …

• The Holy Spirit prevents Worrying:
  
  • Matthew 6:25-34 – Do Not Worry – “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

• The Holy Spirit provides Patience:
  
  • Hebrews 6:12 that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
    
  • Isaiah 40:31 But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

• The Holy Spirit reveals Truth:

• John 4:24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
  
• John 14:17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
  
• John 16:13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.

John 3:35 The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand.

John 3:36 He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”