Author: Jeff Englund

John 3: 2b

“For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

Isn’t it interesting what Nicodemus says here? “For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.” Clearly, this line of thought was not common or popular in any form among his fellow Pharisees, and yet logically it seems like a very reasonable statement to make. After all, the “signs” that Jesus did while on earth were unique. No one else in history has claimed the power to do the things that Jesus did.

Q: How do you explain the fact that others saw Jesus do the same things Nicodemus saw and yet refused to admit what Nicodemus so reasonably admitted; that Jesus could not have done the things he did if God were not with him?

Continue reading “Admission”

John 3: 2a

“He came to Jesus at night and said, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God.’”

When Nicodemus comes to see Jesus and talk with him, he starts out by calling him, “Rabbi,” meaning “teacher.” Technically Nicodemus was a teacher of the highest order, so he was either being extremely deferential or extremely sarcastic in his address to Jesus. But Nicodemus does not stop there. He goes on to commend Jesus as “a teacher who has come from God.”

Q: What do you think Nicodemus meant by the statement that Jesus had “come from God?”

Continue reading “Origins”

John 3:1-2

“Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night”

With just a few short strokes of his Pen, John sketches out a picture of this Pharisee named Nicodemus. Clearly, he is drawn to Jesus. Unlike other Pharisees who try to entrap Jesus at dinner, or reprimand him in the synagogue, Nicodemus comes to see Jesus away from the crowds and away from other eyes.

Q: How many reasons can you think of for a Pharisee to visit someone at night?

John 2: 25

“He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.”

There are many amazing things about our God, and this sentence encompasses one of the most amazing! Knowing each one of us intimately, knowing we could not be trusted, he still comes to earth as one of us and allows us to torture and kill Him in order to provide for our redemption.

Q: What does is say about our God that he would be born a man knowing people to be untrustworthy, knowing what would happen to him, but also knowing that this would allow him to redeem all whom he calls to repentance?

Continue reading “Knowing”

John 2: 24

“But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people.”

As we saw in John 1, Jesus could see Nathanael before even meeting him. The inference is that Jesus is aware of all people. In this verse, John writes that Jesus “knew” all people. The kind of knowledge suggested by the Greek text is intimate and complete.

Q: What qualities would a person need to have in order to be trusted by Jesus?

Continue reading “Trust”

John 2: 23

“Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name.”

Let’s take a second look at this verse. It states that people saw the signs Jesus performed and “believed in his name.” As we have seen just in the first two chapters of John’s gospel, Jesus is referred to by many names.

Q: What does it mean to you to believe in his name?

Continue reading “What’s in a Name?”

John 2: 23

“Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name.”

To have been alive in the days that Jesus walked the earth would be both amazing and confusing. What Jesus said and did was being praised by sinners and at the same time decried by the religious authorities. Who would you believe? Then, to see Jesus stand up to the authorities, cast out demons, or raise the dead; who would you believe?

Q: What sign comes to mind when you think of Jesus?

Continue reading “Sign of the Times”

John 2: 22

“After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.”

John fast forwards the narrative ahead three years for a moment to a time after Jesus had been raised from the dead. The disciples remember what Jesus had said about the temple, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

Q: What scripture is John referring to that might have referred to the words Jesus had spoken?

Continue reading “Fast Forward”

John 2: 20-21

“They replied, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?’ But the temple he had spoken of was his body.”

The temple had always been the focal point of Jewish worship. Originally, at God’s instruction, the Israelites built a mobile temple they called a tabernacle. Then, in the time of Solomon, God allowed a stationary structure to be built; the First Temple. This temple was destroyed when the remainder of Israel was sent into exile for 70 years. The second temple was constructed about five centuries before the birth of Jesus and “rebuilt” by Herod beginning about 20 years before Jesus was born. The “forty-six years” mentioned to this passage refers to what was known as “Herod’s Temple” because Herod financed the project.

The Glory of God had been seen in the First Temple (1 Kings 6, 8), but not in the second. Not until Jesus arrived did the Temple see the Spirit of God again.

Q: If Jesus’ body was the new temple of God, what was in the temple that Herod had built?

Continue reading “Temple Talk”

John 2: 19

“Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.’”

The setting for this verse is this: Jesus and the Jews are standing in the courtyard of the Temple. Jesus has just finished clearing out all of the merchants and money traders who had taken to doing business that should have been done outside of the Temple inside of the Temple courts. The Jews demand a “sign” that would “prove” Jesus had the authority to do what he had done. Jesus responds with the words in today’s verse, “Destroy this temple…” John explains in verse 21 what Jesus meant, but the question remains:

Q: Why did Jesus choose to be so obscure in what he said?