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John 3
1Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
2He 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.”
3Jesus answered him, “Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born anew, he can’t see God’s Kingdom.”
4Nicodemus 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?”
5Jesus answered, “Most certainly I tell you, unless one is and Spirit, he can’t enter into God’s Kingdom.
6That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is is spirit.
7Don’t marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born anew.’
8The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but don’t know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is .”
9Nicodemus answered him, “How can these things be?”
10Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and don’t understand these things?
11Most certainly I tell you, we speak that which we know and testify of that which we have seen, and you don’t receive our witness.
12If I told you earthly things and you don’t , how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
13No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended out of heaven, the , who is in heaven.
14As Moses lifted up the serpent in , even so must the be lifted up,
15that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have .
16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only born Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have .
17For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be through him.
18He who believes in him is not judged. He who doesn’t has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only born .
19This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their works were evil.
20For everyone who does evil hates the light and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed.
21But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God.”
22After these things, Jesus came with his disciples into the land of Judea. He stayed there with them and baptized.
23John also was baptizing in Enon near Salim, because there was much water there. They came and were baptized;
24for John was not yet thrown into prison.
25Therefore a dispute arose on the part of John’s disciples with some Jews about purification.
26They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, he baptizes, and everyone is coming to him.”
27John answered, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven.
28You yourselves testify that I said, ‘I am not the ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before him.’
29He 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 my joy is made full.
30He must increase, but I must decrease.
31“He who comes from above is above all. He who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.
32What he has seen and heard, of that he testifies; and no one receives his witness.
33He who has received his witness has set his seal to this, that God is true.
34For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for God gives the Spirit without measure.
35The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand.
36One who believes in the Son has , but one who disobeys the Son won’t see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”
Slow reading
Read John 3 three times
Guided passes through short verse groups: read it whole, watch the words, then pray it back. Phrases to stop on along the way, with deeper explanation held back until you have read the verses yourself.
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What this chapter is saying
What is John 3 about?
The best known verse in the chapter sits inside a night conversation. Read verses 16 and 17 and then notice who Jesus was speaking to.
16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only born Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
17For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him.
- Written by
- John, writing so that readers may , John 20:31
- Written to
- readers who need to know who Jesus is
- Why
- Nicodemus, a Pharisee and a teacher, comes to Jesus by night
The chapter turns on being , verses 3 to 8. Nicodemus hears it as a physical impossibility, and Jesus answers by speaking of water and the Spirit and of a wind that blows where it wishes. Birth is something done to a person, not achieved by one.
Jesus then points back to Numbers 21:8-9, the bronze serpent lifted up so that those who looked lived. That is the picture he uses for his own lifting up, verses 14 and 15, and it explains why believing is described as looking rather than as working.
Verse 16 follows that image, so the love it announces is love that gives at cost. Verse 17 states the purpose plainly, and verses 18 to 21 add that judgement lands where light is refused because deeds were evil.
The second half of the chapter belongs to John the Baptist, who says he must decrease, verse 30, and closes with a warning as well as a promise in verse 36.
What the chapter does not tell us
The chapter does not tell us what Nicodemus decided that night, though John names him again later, 7:50-51 and 19:39. It does not tell us how the Spirit chooses where to blow.