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Bible Study – John Chapter 3 Verses 6-15

John 3:6 – That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Flesh cannot be made into a spirit. A person must experience a spiritual rebirth. Spiritual rebirth is that of the Spirit of God indwelling our human bodies. Salvation is offered to every believer, but it doesn’t sanctify our spirit either our flesh. But when the Spirit God indwells our human spirit our spirit is reborn of the Spirit of God, He then gives us His attributes and characteristics that will dominate our flesh. Flesh has a sinful nature, and the more we yield to its desires the more it will be in control. When a person experiences the rebirth, he or she is willingly submitting themselves to the Word of God and the Spirit of God. Because the Spirit of God is indwelling their Spirit, they feed their human spirit with the Word God to make it willingly submit to the Spirit of God. Spiritually strength comes through fasting, reading and studying the Word of God and willingly to submit to the instructions.

John 3:7 – Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. Jesus wasn’t just talking to Nicodemus who was a ruler of the Jews; he was Pharisee and a teacher. Since he was a Pharisee, it indicates he was familiar with Word of God through the Old Testament, He knew the Word of God, He accepted God, but He knew nothing about the Son of God or the rebirth. Rebirth is spiritual and its supernatural it’s more than receiving salvation.

John 3:8 – The wind bloweth where it listeth (wishes) and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh; and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. Jesus used the wind as an illustration of the work of the Holy Spirit. The Greek word translated Spirit also means “the wind.” As the wind blows, where it will, so the Holy Spirit sovereignty works. Likewise, no one knows the origin or destination of the wind, but everyone knows it is there. The same is true of the Holy Spirit. Jesus explained that we couldn’t control the work of the Holy Spirit. He works in ways we can’t predict or understand.  We did not have control of our physical birth, but we can volunteer to accept the Holy Spirit as a gift from God to the believer. Those who have been filled with the Holy Spirit, God will take them into a realm of the Spirit where they will know to pray for people they don’t know. He will show different countries and cities that are in need of prayer. He will take His people in the Spirit to countries they have never been to with their natural bodies but will be there in their spirit. Sadly to say, but many Christians haven’t experienced the encounter with the Holy Spirit.

John 3:9 – Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?  Although Nicodemus was a teacher, he didn’t have an idea of what the rebirth was and to how to go about receiving the Holy Spirit. With his natural mind he couldn’t perceive what Jesus was talking about, so he asked the question, how can this be.

John 3:10 – Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master (teacher) of Israel, and knowest not these things? Jesus answered Nicodemus’s question, but first He rebuked him for being a teacher of the Hebrew Scriptures and not knowing about spiritual birth (For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring – Isaiah 44:3). (A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my status, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them – Ezekiel 36:26-27). Both of these scriptures speaks about the new birth in the Old Testament, and Nicodemus being a teacher of the Old Testament should have been aware of the new birth. Many of today’s teachers aren’t familiar with the new birth even though the New Testament also talks about the rebirth, they haven’t received the gift of rebirth which also a gift that comes with salvation when individuals truly accept salvation from the heart and not the emotions and willingly sanctify themselves to the Lord.

John 3:11 – Verily, verily I say unto thee, We speak that (what) we do know, and testify that (what) we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. Nicodemus and other teachers of the Bible knew the Old Testament thoroughly, but they didn’t understand what it said about the Messiah. Knowledge is not salvation, we should know the Bible, but even more important, we should understand the God it reveals and the salvation He offers. Many accept salvation accepting it through Grace thinking they can continue to do whatever they desire because they are under Grace. Every professing believer should know the God they serve and what He expect out of them as His people.

John 3:12 – If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?  “Earthly thing” refer to things that occur on earth, like the new birth, the wind, and perhaps miracles. “Heavenly things” refers to events like Christ’s birth and His ascension, the coming of the Holy Spirit. Nicodemus may have believed in Jesus’s miracles, but the majority of the Jewish council did not. Even today, many pastors, priest, teachers of the Bible teach what they don’t believe because they don’t understand the rebirth and what it consist of. We can only understand the Bible spiritually if not, it will be incomprehensible (But the natural man receive not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned – 1st Corinthians 2:14). The difference between the natural man and the spiritual man is primarily that the spiritual man has founded his faith on God’s revelation. He can judge now both earthly and heavenly things. He can discern what is and-and what is not of the gospel and salvation and whether a man is truly preaching the truth of God. The natural person does not have the Spirit of God although they have received salvation; the rebirth is produced in the person’s spirit and heart which produces a change in their behavior and character.

John 3:13 – And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. Jesus is informing Nicodemus the new birth is by the Son, by the cross, and by faith. He’s informing Nicodemus no one has ascended to heaven but the Son of God, and it is he that he’s speaking with him.

John 3:14 – And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up. Nicodemus was a follower of Moses. As the Israelites journeyed from mount Hor by way of the Red Sea the souls of the people became impatient and they begin to speak against God and Moses. God sent fiery serpents, and they bite the people. Moses prayed for the people. The Lord instructed him to make a brass serpent and place it on a pole, those who had been bitten by the real serpents as they looked to the brass serpent in faith they would live and not die. Jesus was also speaking about His death as He would be lifted up on the cross taking away the sting of sin from all those who place their faith in Him.

John 3:15 – That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. “Believeth” means to continue to place faith in Jesus Christ. When a person trusts Christ, he or she is born again and receives eternal and spiritual life, God’s kind of life. It’s to worship God in spirit and in truth they can commune with God anywhere. Spirit is the opposite of what is material and earthly. Christ makes worship a matter of the heart.  The truth is opposite of all that is false, God doesn’t want His people to be carnal and then try to worship Him, the worship isn’t truth. Serving Him in truth is living according to His instructions for the believer, the believer has received His Spirit to worship Him through the Spirit.

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