Gospel of John: Night meeting with Nicodemus

 Night meeting with Nicodemus

Text: chapter 3

Outline: First of all, it is a good time to state that chapter three is a part of a larger unit – chapters 2 to 4 – seven parts, again.

A. 2:1-12, Jesus at Cana of Galilee

  B. 2:13-25, Jesus at Jerusalem

    C. 3:1-21, Nicodemus (man, night meeting)

      D. 3:22-36, St. John glorifies Jesus

    C'. 4:1-42, Woman of Samaria

  B'. 4:43-45, Jesus goes to Jerusalem

A'. 4:46-54, Jesus comes to Cana in Galilee

Chapter three itself can be outlined as following:

A. 3:1-2, Nicodemus: You are the teacher from God

  B. 3:3-8, Born of the Water and the Spirit

    C. 3:9-15, Bearing witness on whoever believes has eternal life

    C'. 3:16-21, Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.

  B'. 3:22-24, The disciples of Jesus and St. John baptize people (in different places).

A'. 3:25-30, John the Baptizer: He must increase, and I must decrease.

D – Conclusion, 3:31-36, repetition of the main themes: born from above, witness, Father loves the Son, eternal life.

Comments: Meeting of Jesus and Nicodemus gives a foundation for many dogmatic decision made by the Church – understanding of the Holy Baptism, the ministry of the Spirit and the Son. There are also a few misunderstandings – why night, etc. I'll try to address the main ones.

Let's start with the time of the meeting. There are propositions that Nicodemus came to Jesus by night because he was afraid. He was afraid for his position as a ruler of the Jews (John 3:1) or he was afraid for his life, like disciples after the crucifixion of Jesus (cp. John 20:19). I don't agree with this interpretation. The reason being – John has no problem to say that disciples were afraid, the parents of the blind man feared the Jews (John 9:22) etc. But he doesn't say anything like this about Nicodemus. So, why did he come by night? I think he came by night because he and Jesus were busy doing the ministry – in their own respected areas. The only possible time for them to meet was when every one else went to sleep.

The language of Jesus. The phrase “born from above” vs “born again” is a reason for misunderstanding. The Greek word “anothen” has two meanings – again and from above. Nicodemus obviously understands it as being born again – literally, from his mother – can a man second time come to his mother's womb? (John 3:4). Then Jesus explained to him the true meaning of the beginning of the spiritual life – being born from the water and the Spirit (John 3:5). This one of the foundational text for baptismal theology in the Book of Concord (AC II:2).

Wilderness imagery. Unlike other Gospels the Gospel of John does not have a wilderness story. At the same time there no lack of wilderness imagery – here is one of the examples. Jesus reminds Nicodemus of the Bronze serpent that Moses used to heal the wounds of the people of Israel (Numbers 21:4-9). Building on this example, Jesus foretells that He – the Son of Man – will be lifted up (John 3:14). What is He talking about? Crucifixion or Ascension? The way to solve it is to allow the Scriptures interpret the Scriptures – later, Jesus again will talk about Him being “lifted up” (John 12:32). There John will clearly point out that it was a reference to His death (John 12:33). That's why we use crucifixes in the Church – the Crucified Savior draws people to Himself.

The golden verse. Who doesn't know John 3:16? The extend of God's love in Jesus has no boundaries. Love for the [whole] world led Father to send His only begotten Son to be the source of eternal life. Yet, there are churches who misunderstand even this verse. The Presbyterian and Reformed churches believe that the World means a collection of the elect – only those who would receive Jesus by faith, for them and only for them Jesus died on the cross. We reject this notion – the world did not accepted Jesus (cp. 1:10). He died to bridge the gap between the rebellious world and the Creator (2 Corinthians 5:19). Some people would accept and have a life of faith, and some people would keep on fighting to the end (no pun intended...).

Ministry of John. The second title for John the Baptizer is John the Forerunner. He began the ministry prior to Jesus – to prepare the way (cp. Like 3:1-6). Also, his martyrdom would point to the ultimate sacrifice of Christ. In between he would minister to people, but his ministry was unique in a sense that he would always point to Jesus. It can be summarized in the phrase from this chapter - “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).

Given vs reception. We already touched a little bit on the topic of election. There is another extreme – teaching of free will of reception. One of the most obvious implication of that is “we don't teach our children, they need to receive Jesus on their own.” But St. John the Baptizer explained it very plain – a person can not receive even one thing unless it is given to him from heaven (John 3:27). We teach our children, because it is given to them – since they are born in the family of the believers. The world without the knowledge of Christ is under the wrath of God (John 3:36). We don't want our children to be under the wrath, but to believe and to be obedient to the Son.                            

Gospel of John: Prologue

The Prologue

Text: John 1:1-18

Structure:

A. 1:1-3, Word with God.

  B. 1:4-5, Light vs. darkness.

    C. 1:6-8, witness of John.

      D. 1:9-10, He was IN the word.

        E. 1:11-13, He came to His own.

      D'. 1:14, Word dwelt AMONG us.

    C'. 1:15, witness of John

  B'. 1:16-17, Grace (upon grace) vs. Law

A'. 1:18, Son made know the Father

Comments: Dr. Weinrich in his commentary (Weinrich, John 1:1 – 7:1, CPH, 2015) dedicates 8 pages to a single phrase: in the beginning... By no means we can say that his brilliant commentary is the final word on this precious words of John. But it gives a reader a sense of depth of John's Gospel – 2000 years later a brilliant theologian dedicates these many pages to four Greek words. We don't have a luxury of a multi-volume format. Therefore, we will simply highlight the main directions for understanding the words of John given to us to believe (John 20:30-31).

The Word and the Son. There are countless papers written on the parallels between Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1. To point out just one – from the very beginning God works out the created world via Word (cp. Genesis 1:3). God speaks the world into being. Here we have the Word – the divine Logos – as the One who was, and is with, and is God himself. Should we understand it terms of time, or relationship? And the answer is YES. Later St. John will record the Revelation, where Jesus identifies Himself in terms of time (Revelation 1:8). We also shall see the revelation of the Father through Son [only] – John 1:18 and following the question of Phillip (John 14:8-9).

Light vs. darkness. In Genesis account of creation the darkness (Genesis 1:3-5) did not have the dark side (pun intended). The narrative of the first day simply tells us of duality of created world. God planned a period of the day for productive actions, and another period for us to have a rest. Any attempts to read the mutiny of angels into the first day should be answered by God's own assessment of the created world at the end of the sixth day – everything was done VERY good.

But John writes in the context of the fallen world. Therefore, for him the term darkness (or darkness related words) will bear a significant spiritual load (cp. John 13:30). At the same time, we need to be careful not to identify the Law of Moses with the darkness of the present age. The Law is turned into darkness by the people who didn't want to see the ultimate source behind the actions and the words of Moses (remember, Deuteronomy – the fifth book – of the Bible in Hebrew means the Words). Jesus will point it out very clearly (cp. John 6:32-34). Yet, if they insist on the supremacy of Moses, this turns a great gift of God into an idol – the LAW as a pattern of salvation, while we know that the ONLY way of salvation is grace of Jesus (John 1:17 and John 14:6).

The identity and witness of John. At the first glance a reader might be under impression that John talks about himself. It would make a perfect sense, but it would go against the pattern of the usage of the name John in the Gospel. Whenever it is used – it refers to John the Baptizer, while John identifies himself as “the disciple that Jesus loved” or “the other disciple” (cp. John 13:25; 20:3). This becomes really clear, reading John 1:15 – the testimony of John is the One who came after/later is ranked above because he was before (means forever, cp. John 1:1-3).

Presence in the world and dwelling among us. John comes back to the theme of light, which forces us to re-read Genesis 1:3 – the light of the first day was not created, it was spoken into the world, presenting the idea un-created light sustaining the world for three first days of the world. It is definitely not the light of the sun or any other star or celestial object for it gives LIFE to everything that exists in the world. Sun is essential to the life of the world, but it also can have devastating effect on the creatures – burns, cancer, fires... Therefore, the light of John 1 is Jesus – what John will illuminate even more in John 8 to 10.

Similarly, the mystical presence of the Word dwells among us – the word dwell here meaning the presence of God among His people only. No one, nothing can dwell in the world in the same way. Therefore, saying that the Word became flesh and dwelt creates a beautiful theological paradox for an Ancient mind, as well as a mind of a modern skeptic. How come transcendent God can be limited to the flesh of a human man? Paradox, it can only be resolved in Jesus Christ who is both God and man (cp. Creed).

Reception of the He. The whole purpose of John's Gospel is to show that Jesus is the Son of God, and believing in Him people can have eternal life. It should be received (John 1:12). But when one receives – that means that there is a Giver on the other end. We do not search for God (even when psychological picture looks like this), He is who reaches out for and to us. Jesus came to save the world (for us, John 3:16), and He comes in the Word and the Sacraments that everyone of us can have life [eternal] (to us, John 10:10). 

ROMANS: GREETINGS

 GREETINGS

Passage: Rom. 1:1-7

Structure:

A. 1:1, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle

  B. 1:2-4, Son of God… Jesus Christ

A’. 1:5-6, Through whom we received grace and apostleship

  B’, 1:7, grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ

Important terms:

Paul – we know that his “birthname” was Saul (Acts 7:58), like the first king of Israel. Yet, at some point, he adopted the name/title Paul (Acts 13:1 to 13:13). Paul means “a little one.”    

Servant – the better translation is “slave.” Lit. “owned body and soul.” The term is used often for the dedicated personalities serving God (Moses – Josh. 1:2; Samuel – 1 Sam. 3:9-10; David – 2 Sam. 3:18; 7:5,8).    

Called – two important things to note: (1) Paul is called, not “became.” It is Jesus Christ who calls to the ministry or in apostleship. (2) The word “called” is related to the word “church” – those who are called out.    

Name is proclaimed among the nation for salvation (cp. 4:12). Jesus is the name that God presents Himself to the world (John 17: 6,11-12).

Grace is a gift (3:24), used in Romans 24 times.  

Peace – a part of a regular Jewish greeting – Peace be with you, Shalom aleichem. Paul successfully combines the grace from God that results in peace among the people.  

Commentary:

Gospel was promised beforehand by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures. This means that the OT is a great witness for the Gospel. It is an important skill to able explain life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.   

Gospel was declared to be [the person of] the Son of God. Therefore, according to Paul the Gospel is not a set of propositions or theological statements, but the person of Jesus Christ. The main prove of the Gospel is His resurrection from the dead – victory over death that Adam brought into the world (5:12-14).    

In his discussion of the Son of God Paul sets juxtaposition of son of David and all nations. David was a king of Israel. Yet, it is through him God made a covenant promising that the God’s anointed will sit on the throne forever (2 Sam. 7). This Messianic King will be a blessing to all of the nations for the promise goes back to Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3).

Book of Concord:

1:3 – FC, SD VIII:37, in discussion of distinctive features of the person and the nature of Christ.

1:4 – FC, SD VIII:85, quoting Luther’s Treatise on the Last Words of David (LW 15:293-294), authors of the Formula of Concord reiterate the importance of identification of the human nature of Christ (not losing from sight His divine nature from the eternity).