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Jn 2,5-8

(14f) Servant >> Ministry of helps >> Helpers obey Christ – The role of helpers in the ministry of helps can ask all the questions they want about the "people" they serve, but faithful helpers don’t ask questions about the one they serve, who is ultimately Christ. These servants don’t have to ask questions because they have a great relationship with Christ and have previously tested and found trustworthy God’s leadership among His people.

(172h) Catholicism (Key verse) – Catholic priests are required to bless the bread and the wine, which according to their doctrine transforms into the literal flesh and blood of Christ. This doctrine among others made the Church beholden to the priests as the central figure of the people’s faith, so they had no choice but to go to a Catholic church to receive what they were taught they needed from God. At the end of the age this same doctrine will condemn the Catholic Church when they stand before God and attempt to deny their involvement in murdering the saints.

Jn 2,7-10

(13m) Servant >> Serve God faithfully – God often asks you to do things that you don’t understand, but will understand later if you do them. We should have the attitude that Mary, His mother, spoke to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it." We don’t have the big picture like God does, so we can’t make judgments about the validity of God’s requirements on our lives. We are better off just doing what He says without asking any questions like these servants did and later discovering what it was all about as we enjoy the rewards of our faith and obedience.

Jn 2,7-9

(72g) Authority >> Transferring authority >> Receiving the delegated authority of Christ – Jesus had the headwaiter taste the new wine first in recognition of his authority, just as God delegates His authority within the godhead and disseminates it throughout the Church. We too should recognize the authority of Christ as coming from the Father, and delegate our authority from God though the hierarchy that exists within the Church and throughout the world.

Jn 2-9,10

(43g) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Perfect (mature) >> Flawless

Jn 2-10

(221a) Kingdom of God >> The elusive Kingdom of Heaven >> Kingdom hidden behind the veil from the world >> God hides from man’s ignorance >> God hides from those who are not looking for Him

(229k) Kingdom of God >> God’s kingdom is a living organism >> Partaking >> Partaking of Jesus >> Partaking of Jesus’ ministry

Jn 2-12 -- No Entries

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13-17 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. 15 And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; 16 and to those who were selling the doves He said, "Take these things away; stop making My Father's house a place of business." 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, "ZEAL FOR YOUR HOUSE WILL CONSUME ME."

Jn 2,13-21

(122j) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Boldness in adverse circumstances >> Do the will of God in the face of adversity – Jesus drove out the moneychangers from the temple with a whip. This happens to be the favorite Scripture of many anti-Semitic, white supremacy groups, who claim that the Jews who held Israel in bondage to their money system in Jesus’ day are the ancestors of the Jewish bankers presently holding the world hostage to their ruthless debt-based money system. We should be driving the moneylenders from the economic system of our day, but no one is stepping to the plate like Jesus did.

(179a) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Hypocrisy >> Jesus rebukes the Pharisees >> Rebuked for questioning His authority –  After Jesus overturned their tables and drove them from the temple, they asked the Lord by what authority He did this. His answer, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Jesus was the embodiment of God’s grace and mercy, and the only way He could show them the love of God was with a whip. In Matthew chapter 24 He asked them, “How will you escape the sentence of hell?” meaning they wouldn’t. Since these people were dead while they lived (Jude 12) and judged before the time (Mat 8-29), it indicates that they were literally incapable of repenting of their unbelief. These men were incapable of receiving what Jesus came to offer the world; they didn’t deserve the truth.

(180a) Works of the devil >> Practicing witchcraft >> Wolves >> Wolves lead people into a cult >> Leading people for sordid gain

(64c) Paradox >> Anomalies >> Limits of God >> God has limited patience

(69c) Righteous Anger (Key verse)

(69d) Authority >> Righteous judgment (outcome of discernment) >> Righteous anger >> God is angry at sin

(101d) Thy kingdom come >> Zeal does not count the cost >> Zeal of God has consumed me – When it says in Ps 69-9 says, “Zeal for Your house has consumed me,” it was speaking most directly to the temple of worship in Jerusalem, speaking most specifically to the event when he drove out the money changers, consisting of Pharisees, scribes and religious leaders of Israel. The Pharisees hated Him, but they tolerated Him until He did this. Chasing out the moneychangers with a whip was the act that got Him killed. They hated Him for having such power to heal diseases and for such charisma to attract thousands of people to Himself, yet they endured him, but not after He upset their money system. That was the end of their tolerance of Him. It was these Jews who gave Jesus so much trouble throughout the gospel of John. Even the disciples knew this for themselves that this was written in the Old Testament. Jesus was consumed on the cross because of His zeal for the house of God. What should Jesus have done, left them alone, so He would not be crucified? It was for this reason that He came into the world. Jesus did the right thing though it cost Him His life.

(175b) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Form of godliness >> Using religion as a front – Throughout His entire ministry for 3 ½ years He was badgered and harassed by the moneychangers, the Pharisees. They hated Him because He had the truth, and the truth was a threat to those who were trying to enslave Israel in their money system, just like the truth is a threat to those who are currently trying to enslave the world in their global economy. Question: was it the moneychangers who hung Jesus on the cross, or was it the religious establishment of His time? In fact it was both. As Christ confronted the moneychangers, so one day the two witnesses will drive the antichrist from the temple that Israel will rebuild in the last days, and for the next 3 ½ years the moneychangers will do everything in their power to kill them, just like they did to Jesus, but God will give them power to destroy their enemies. How would you describe the satanic institution in the last days that rounds up Christians and systematically exterminates them, analogous to crucifying Christ? It will be a composition of two entities: one will be the false prophet, who represents the moneylenders of our day, and the other will be the antichrist, representing the religious establishment. He will tie his evil religion to his ruthless economic system when the moneychangers convert the global economy to the mark of the beast. Together the antichrist and the false prophet will resemble the Jews whom Jesus drove from the temple with a whip. For further commentary on this: Kingdom of the Antichrist  

Jn 2-16,17

(103c) Thy kingdom come >> Purifying process >> God’s cleansing power >> Cleansing power of the word

(141h) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Old Testament bears witness to the new >> It bears witness to Jesus >> Prophesy about Jesus’ life

Jn 2-17

(59e) Paradox >> Two implied meanings >> Zeal will consume my heart / Zeal will consume my body – Jesus is our divine standard of zeal. What we don’t know about Jesus (because no one tells us) is that His zeal far exceeded anybody else's; in fact, His zeal is what got Him martyred. Jesus had the fullness of anointing and He lived the fullness as an apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher. Many people were martyrs for their faith over the millennia, but nobody took on the sins of humanity. It took commitment to showcase his willingness to obey His Father. Someone might say they live from day to day, but at least Jesus knew His Father’s will. We have certain things hanging over our heads throughout life, such as supplying the needs of our family, but how could we live with the sins of the whole world hanging over our heads, and then to be persecuted and spitefully treated on top of it? Jesus knew beyond the shadow of doubt that His Father would raise Him three days after His death; He must have constantly looked past the cross to His resurrection and toward the goal of the Church that His Father would give as a gift for His obedience of the cross.

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18-25 The Jews then said to Him, "What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?" 19 Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." 20 The Jews then said, "It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?" 21 But He was speaking of the temple of His body. 22 So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken. 23 Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. 24 But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, 25 and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.

Jn 2,18-21

(62b) Paradox >> Anomalies >> Responding cleverly to your enemies >> Lie to them

(177a) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> False doctrine >> Distorting Scripture >> Distorting Scripture from a lack of understanding

(221b) Kingdom of God >> The elusive Kingdom of Heaven >> Kingdom hidden behind the veil from the world >> God hides from man’s ignorance >> God hides from those who are looking for Him

Jn 2-18,19

(62n) Paradox >> Anomalies >> Righteous deception >> Jesus deceives the world – After vehemently opposing their business of religion Jesus in almost every respect told them a boldfaced lie, in that He led them to believe He was talking about the temple building, when in fact He was referring to the temple of His body. Indeed, they used this very statement against Him in His mock trial, forever establishing the connection between the money changers and His crucifixion. Did Jesus really lie to them? Technically yes, but spiritually no. It may have been Jesus' fault they didn't understand what He said, but then, they were also mistaken about the Scriptures and the power of God (Mk 12-24) in order to take advantage of the people. What obligation did Jesus have in telling them the truth? Had Jesus talked to them plainly, they would have either misunderstood that too, or else used it against Him. If they used His righteous deception against Him, how much more would they have used the truth against Him?  They wanted to misinterpret the scripture for their own purposes; Jesus merely helped them along.

(177h) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Presumption (Hinduism) >> Misunderstanding Jesus

Jn 2,19-21

(140e) Temple >> Temple made without hands >> Hiding place >> The entrance exam

(58i) Two Implied Meanings (Key verse)

(58j) Paradox >> Two implied meanings >> The temple building / The temple of His body

Jn 2-22,23

(20h) Sin >> Doubt replaces faith – Throughout His 3½-year ministry, the disciples were constantly trying to understand this man. It was frustrating for them because they knew He was the Son of God, yet they could not predict what He would do next or make any sense of His words, and they never pieced together His intensions until He rose from the dead. Jesus spoke to them every day about His Father. God sent Him to them on a specific mission, and the only thing the disciples could figure He was doing must result in the Kingdom of God being manifested in the natural realm, the same kingdom we are anticipating to this day. So everything He said and did, they jammed into this perspective, and none of it fit, like pounding a square peg into a round hole. With a big enough hammer they could make it fit, and that is what they did; when He said or did something that deviated from their expectations, they just got a bigger hammer and made it fit into their belief system. He told them many times point blank what were His intensions, but it did no good, because they could not hear His words.

(86e) Thy kingdom come >> Belief >> God’s works act as evidence to support our beliefs – When He said these words, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,” they remembered He said it, but they didn’t know what He meant at the time. Later they understood what He meant and believed in Him. In the same way today, we can quote what the Bible says, but many of us don’t know what it means. There are those in the Church today who well know the Scriptures but know little what it means. The disciples finally understood His purpose after Jesus rose from the dead, but that is what it took. Those 3½ days after His death, they probably remembered some of the things he said, that He would rise from the dead, and they were no doubt hoping He would, but they refused to let themselves believe it. None of the disciples genuinely expected Him to rise from the dead, and Jesus' attitude was that they should have believed in Him, because of all the proofs that He had showed them.

Jn 2-23

(67g) Authority >> Jesus delegates authority >> The name of Jesus is the salvation of God – “Many believed in His name.” This is what Jesus said we would do throughout the age of grace who did not have a chance to personally meet Him; we should believe in His name “through our word” (Jn 17-20). These who believed in His name who had personally met Him, could have believed in the person of Jesus Christ. Instead, they believed in His name, symbolizing His identity as the Christ. When it says they believed in His name, it doesn’t mean they believed in Him the way we are called to believe in Him, through faith. We believe in Him though we have never seen Him, whereas they saw Him and actually witnessed His miracles. If His own disciples technically did not believe in Jesus, they loved and adored Him but in no way did they understand His mission, how much less did the people believe in Him who were not his disciples? So when it says they believed in His name, it means that on some level they recognized Him as the Messiah, but not in a way that would effect their salvation. In other words, they didn’t actually put their trust in Him. In the same way, many of us believe what the Bible says, but they don’t trust what it says, otherwise they would be saved.

Jn 2-24,25

(16b) Sin >> Man’s nature is instinctively evil >> Man is an enemy of God – It would be hard to say whether Jesus trusted His twelve disciples during His 3 ½ year ministry, but He definitely did not trust the others who believed in Him. It says that He knew what was in men. He knew they could not be trusted, though He didn’t see anymore evil in them than was in anyone else. They may have given their hearts to Him, but He was not about to reciprocate. They would have used Him up and then kicked Him to the curb. He was glad they believed in Him, but there was nothing more He could do for them. He preached the gospel and allowed them to witness His miracles, but He formed no mutual bonds with anyone, not even with His twelve disciples. He was there to show them the love that the Father had for them, and He did love them, but He didn’t trust them, like a parent loves his children but doesn't trust them with the car at age ten.

(62h) Paradox >> Anomalies >> Being clever >> Do not commit yourself too hastily

(68j) Authority >> Discernment >> Judging truth and error >> Perceiving a wicked heart

Jn 3,1-10

(166f) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> Wisdom of the world >> Nature Of Man’s Wisdom >> Man’s wisdom does not know God – Nicodemus unwittingly admitted that he was completely mystified by everything Jesus had been telling him, saying, “How can these things be?” Jesus tore into him with that, saying He had spoken to him in plain words, and he still didn’t understand. Nicodemus came to Jesus looking for the truth, wanting to hear something else, as though still trying to control the truth, as was his custom, until Jesus suddenly appeared and disrupted his worldview. The truth was not something he was ready to hear. He wanted something that was more familiar to his personal experience and teaching that he could grasp with his fleshly mind. Jesus was speaking to him in parables to some degree, but spoke literal as He could. Since mankind knows nothing about God, for Jesus to speak more plainly about the Father would not have helped. Jesus spoke in parables as an aid, not for His own benefit but for his audience to help him go from what he knew to what he didn’t know. His words sounded like riddles to Nicodemus, but better that than gibberish, which is what the teaching of the Holy Spirit sounds like to the untrained ear. It frustrated Nicodemus that Jesus spoke to him in riddles, but Jesus in many respects had no choice. Then Jesus told Him that he was actually telling him about earthly things, and that he was even less prepared to receive the knowledge of heavenly things. Jesus was saying that He hadn’t even begun to speak about unfamiliar things that were virtually impossible to understand with the natural mind. Jesus often did this to people who were seeking Him. Instead of encouraging him, He put him on sensory overload, so he would never forget the truth was forever bigger than him, no matter how much he learned or how close he thought he was getting to the truth.

Jn 3,1-8

(118m) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Freedom >> Law of the spirit >> Newness of the spirit transcends oldness of the letter – Nicodemus had no understanding of the things Jesus said, though he was a ruler of Israel, the only nation in the world that was born of God through the faith of Abraham the moment he obeyed the voice he heard, knowing it was God who spoke to him to leave his fatherland and journey to a foreign land that neither he nor his fathers ever knew. This was similar to what Jesus was asking Nicodemus to do, who was an expert in the Scriptures, yet he had no capacity of comprehending Jesus, and was struggling to understand how He fit into the design of Israel’s past, present and future. Everything Jesus said was a mystery to him; and for this reason he came to him for a personal tutor lesson, hoping Jesus would not speak in parables, but plainly about the truth. Although the new covenant was built upon the old, yet Nicodemus couldn’t recognize the connection between them, demonstrating the inherent difference between them, in that the old covenant was a set of laws and commandments that Israel was obligated to observe, while the new was faith-based upon the Spirit. Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus by that Spirit, and he was unable to understand Him, because he had no experience with Him. No one did at that time, not even the twelve disciples.

(221i) Kingdom of God >> The elusive Kingdom of Heaven >> Kingdom hidden behind the veil from the world >> God hides his divinity from man’s corruption >> The Kingdom of God is from another realm – We must all be physically born in order to exist in the natural realm, but it is just as imperative that we be spiritually born if we have any plans on spending eternity in heaven. Symbolically, Jesus drew a line in the sand between He and Nicodemus saying, “That which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of spirit is spirit.” They cannot cross over, just like the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Lk 16,19-31). After they lived their lives and died, Lazarus went to heaven, but the rich man lifted his eyes in hell, knowing it was too much to ask if he could cross over, asked if Lazarus could only come with a glass of water that he might cool his tongue, for he was in agony in the flames. Jesus explained there was a great chasm that separated heaven from hell, though they may be within eyeshot of each other. In like manner, the spirit and the flesh do not desire each other, nor can you cross to the spirit through the flesh. They are two separate realms that have no association, but what is without a solution God has made possible through the blood of His cross.

(232m) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Seeking the kingdom >> Seek the essence of his kingdom >> Seeking Jesus – A Pharisee came seeking Jesus by night in fear of his associates, hungry for the truth. The Pharisees were the group of moneychangers, whom Jesus drove from the temple with a whip a chapter earlier, and contended with Him throughout the gospel of John, who ultimately had Him crucified, but now we have one of their own, Nicodemus, asking Jesus to unravel the truth for him, showing that in every group no matter how evil, some are seeking truth. Later, in Jn 19-39,40, we see Nicodemus tending to Jesus' body after His crucifixion. By that act, it should answer the question whether Nicodemus believed in Jesus; it is surprising that some people still debate it. If this is how he felt about the dead body of Jesus, imagine how he felt about Him while he was still alive. Nicodemus will be with us in heaven by evidence of his contribution to the gospel of Christ in preparing Jesus’ body for burial.

(238a) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> The kingdom is transferred to the Church >> Born again >> Born of the Spirit by the will of God >> Born again by the will of the Father – Nicodemus sarcastic complained to Jesus about His statement about being born-again, asking Him how he could go back into his mother’s womb and be reborn. Did anyone have the Holy Spirit back in the Old Testament? Look at King David, he was anointed, and all the prophets of old were anointed, but the common person, what about them? Was being born-again something Jesus inaugurated, or could someone be born-again before Christ? Being born-again means that the Holy Spirit dwells in the believer. He is our counselor and our comforter, the supercharger of our conscience, showing us the difference between right and wrong, and the anointing enables us to produce fruit; it is also by the anointing that the eyes of our spirit can see. It is the anointing that gives us the same qualities of the prophets of old. In fact, the New Testament teaches that every believer in Jesus who pursues an anointing from God develops a prophetic ministry. Every Christian has potential to walk in the gift of prophecy (1Cor 12-10). Nevertheless, after Jesus’ resurrection, He blew on His disciples saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” They believed in Jesus long before this happened, so had the born-again experience been available, they would have already been born-again, but they weren’t. Therefore, the born-again experience was purchased through the blood of Christ and made available after his resurrection, but the anointing wasn’t available until after Pentecost. None of Jesus’ disciples walked in an anointing while they were with Jesus, and because the anointing was absent in their lives, they were not able to see past His flesh, but on Pentecost He gave each of his disciples a specific anointing to produce specific fruit, but they all had some things in common, one of them being the ability to see in the Spirit, and if they had this anointing while they walked with Jesus, they would have been able to “see Him as He is” (1Jn 3-2).

Jn 3-1,2

(146i) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Jesus’ works bear witness of Himself >> Purpose of Miracles, Signs And Wonders >> Proof that Jesus is the son of God >> That the world may be saved – Nicodemus was convinced by the signs that Jesus performed saying, “No one can do the signs that you do, unless God is with him.” The purpose of miracles is for people to logically deduce that God is with the person performing the miracles in order to gain their attention for the purpose of preaching the gospel of Christ. Knowing what Nicodemus needed to hear, Jesus cut to the chase and told him that he needed to be born again in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. This angered Nicodemus because it made no sense to him and he began arguing with the Lord, not like a Pharisee, but wanting to know the truth. He had been a student of God’s word his whole life and never heard the things Jesus spoke, yet he could not deny that God was with him by evidence of the miracles.

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2-7 this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him." 3 Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." 4 Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?" 5 Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 "Do not be amazed that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'

Jn 3-2

(175g) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Ignorance >> Dodging the issue (willful ignorance) >> Evading the heart of the matter

(207f) Salvation >> The salvation of God >> Salvation verses >> The Kingdom of God >> Children of God’s kingdom

(238a) Born again (Key verse)

Jn 3,3-5

(114d) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Working the grace of God >> Obeying the Holy Spirit >> Obeying the revelation from heaven >> Obeying the revelation of God’s word

(177h) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Presumption (Hinduism) >> Misunderstanding Jesus

Jn 3-3,4

(177a) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> False doctrine >> Distorting Scripture from a lack of understanding

Jn 3-3

(78b) Thy kingdom come >> Sincerity of heart >> Being honest >> Telling the truth

(118c) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Eyes of your spirit >> Seeing through the eyes of your spirit

Jn 3-4

(63i) Paradox >> Anomalies >> Sarcastic from being emotional >> Frustrated

Jn 3-5

(60g) Paradox >> Two implied meanings >> Born of water—Natural birth / Through the word of God

Jn 3-7,8

(219c) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> The elect >> Man is a spectator of his own salvation >> God has chosen us

Jn 3-7

(33h) Gift of God >> Believers are children >> God is our Father >> Children are being molded after their heavenly Father -- This verse goes with verse 18

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8-13 "The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit." 9 Nicodemus said to Him, "How can these things be?" 10 Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? 11 "Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony. 12 "If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 "No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man.

Jn 3-8

(106c) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Hearing from God >> Attaining the hearing ear >> Knowing the sound of His voice >> Flowing with the wind of His voice

(110i) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Spirit and the word >> Born of the Spirit by the truth >> Sound of the wind is the words of Jesus – Jesus talked more about the Holy Spirit than anyone else. He invested His very blood in procuring a way for us to receive Him. He told Nicodemus not to worry about being born again, because he cannot make it happen unless God chooses him, like the wind chooses to blow on him. You cannot chase the wind, because you don’t know where it is or where it is going. Rather, it comes to you. The question is: what will you do when the spirit of God blows on you? Will you ignore Him, or will you listen to His voice and do what He says. To obey the wind of the Spirit is what it means to be born again.

(229d) Kingdom of God >> God’s kingdom is a living organism >> Kingdom grows by itself >> God causes the growth >> Kingdom grows according to the will of God

Jn 3,9-12

(20cb) Sin >> Nature of sin >> Unbelief >> Having a mind that is unable to receive >> Religion doesn't know how to believe in God -- These verses go with verses 18-20. In Mk 9-23 Jesus said to the man with a demon-possessed son, “‘If You can? All things are possible to him who believes.’ Immediately the boy's father cried out and said, ‘I do believe; help my unbelief.’” So the man believed and didn’t believe at the same time. He hadn't allowed Jesus into his world-view until then; it was all brand-new to him. The man essentially said to Jesus, ‘I believe in you, but my belief-system doesn’t.’ He saw and heard about some things Jesus did, having unearthly capabilities and knew He could heal his son, but he didn’t know how. He didn’t believe the man Christ Jesus was standing in front of him, yet his outward frame was fully detectable. Yes, he believed Jesus could heal his son, but no, it was not an aspect of his current belief system.

(162e) Works of the devil >> Being a slave to the devil (Addictions) >> Bondage >> A slave to unbelief >> Bondage to an inability to believe – What does it mean to believe? Jesus taught that believing as tantamount to obedience, yet the world treats believing as simply accepting ideas into their worldview, usually without stopping long enough to even think about them. A worldly person rejects all things spiritual, whereas a spiritual person’s beliefs transcend this natural realm. When Jesus told Nicodemus about being born-again, he was unaware that such things were possible, because his view of creation would not allow him to accept it, for it did not fit with anything he believed. When we talk about the world’s belief system, that is a misnomer, for the world doesn’t really believe anything, yet that is not exactly true either. The world does believe in many things, however, by assumption only, which is not technically believing, since it does not imply that the person actually thought about anything before he believed it, yet this is the process of believing in the world. Most people don’t ever stop to think about what they believe, which allows Satan to spoon-feed their concept of reality. He tells them what to believe, which always revolves around things that are detectable by the five senses. That which is undetectable yet assumed true is where people really get into trouble, such as atheism, which assumes that God does not exist because they have never seen Him. They use the same elementary principles in reverse, by the absence of detection; that is, since they never detected God, they assume He doesn’t’ exist. However, because evil exists, they assume God is evil, and many people actually believe both of these at the same time: God is evil and He does not exit, which obviously are contradictory on its face. Atheists often do this, because they don’t really believe anything; they just assume things, and when we assume something, we don’t really believe it.

(167d) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> Carnality/Secularism (mindset of the world) >> The carnal mind is set on the flesh >> Bound to the earth – Jesus had just finished telling Nicodemus that he must be born-again before he will see the Kingdom of Heaven, and then said that this pertains to earthly things, then asked, “How will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” So being born-again is actually considered an earthly thing. God has come from heaven to earth in the form of Jesus Christ to shed His blood, who rose from the dead, ascended back to the Father and sent the Holy Spirit in His place, who now dwells in people, giving the born-again believer an earthly experience of Himself in the Spirit. Most people would say there is nothing more heavenly than being born-again, but Jesus said that this is just the beginning. There are things indeed more heavenly than this, which in itself is amazing.

(198f) Denying Christ >> Man exercises his will against God >> Ordained by man >> Men place themselves in positions of authority >> Men who are ill-equipped to fulfill the ministry – Nicodemus was a religious leader of Israel, but after he met Jesus he realized he was completely ignorant of God. Our beliefs try to explain the reality of creation, and Nicodemus was trying to find a place for Jesus in his current belief system, but He didn’t fit anywhere. Jesus doesn’t fit into anyone’s previous belief system, which makes casting aside our current views the first order of business. To him, who is seeking Jesus to be born-again he must clean house, throwing straight into the dumpster all the junk theology that has accumulated over the years, and then come to Jesus and accept whatever He says as our new truth. Jesus rebuked Nicodemus for not believing what He said, expecting him to have given up his current belief system before coming to him. Eventually Nicodemus did set aside his previous beliefs and adopted the teachings of Christ, as evident at Jesus’ burial. Nicodemus’ assistance at His burial was a gesture denoting that he had been thinking about the things Jesus said to him the night he secretly met with Him, being more willing to embrace the teachings of a dead man over his old broken-down views of God. Once Jesus rose from the dead, Nicodemus unquestionably believed in Jesus. He believed in a man who was not only alive, but one who returned from the dead, one who is alive forevermore. The Bible is not explicit about what we will do in eternity, but it doesn’t matter in light of possessing the gift of  eternal life.

Jn 3-11

(199i) Denying Christ >> Man chooses his own destiny apart from God >> Rejecting Christ >> The world rejects God >> World rejects God because it does not know Him

Jn 3-13 

(224b) Kingdom of God >> Illustrating the kingdom >> Description of heaven >> Describing the kingdom after he makes all things new >> Description of the ascension – Jesus just said that mankind from Adam till Christ have not yet seen heaven, except the Son of God. However, when Jesus went to heaven, he brought all the souls with Him who had died in faith since Adam. 2Cor 5-8 says that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Eph 4-8 says, “When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives and He gave gifts to men.” This is referring to emptying the place referred to by Jesus in Lk 16,19-31, which He called Abraham’s bosom. It is essentially a place where God has stored the souls of people who have died in faith from Abraham to the ascension of Christ. Those before and after Abraham who lived according to their conscience are assumed to be among them. Therefore since Christ, when a person dies believing in His blood sacrifice, they are immediately swept to heaven by the angels of God.

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14&15 "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; 15 so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.

Jn 3,14-21

(85m) Thy kingdom come >> Belief >> Treating the knowledge of God as fact >> Believing the Son by obeying the Father >> Obeying the Father through the son (The old covenant through the new) -- These verses go with verse 36

(205aa) Salvation >> Verses useful in evangelism -- These verses go with verse 36

Jn 3,14-18

(31e) Gift of God >> Grace >> Salvation >> God’s mercy overrules man’s sin – We can sit and listen to somebody’s dissertation on the Scriptures all day, and for the most part it is all good, but it’s when he says, “therefore” that we should be cautious and listen more intently, because heresy tends to creep in immediately after that word. What follows after “therefore” is their interpretation of what was said, and we often trip on these things. We almost never get the Scriptures wrong; rather, it is our interpretation of them. Therefore, we are to live as Jesus lived; there is nothing wrong with that. If we believe that Jesus died because of sin, then we should “go and sin no more” as He said to the woman caught in adultery (Jn 8-11), and He also said regarding the Good Samaritan, “Go and do the same.” This is what Jesus would say while we are focusing our attention on Him as He is forgiving our sin.

(114h) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Working the grace of God >> Jesus does God’s work >> All his works are done through the father >> Jesus exercises His will through the will of His Father

(117ga) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Eyes of your spirit >> Vision >> Real-eyes God’s purpose for the Church >> Understand Jesus' subordinate position with the Father – There are plenty of people who think all they have to do is focus on Jesus for a moment to be saved forever. This is easy-believism. It may only take a moment to eradicate our past sins, but it takes a lifetime of attention to change our desires from sin to righteousness. The analogy nails the fact that the cross of Christ is the center of our faith and the center of God’s grace. It also suggests that it is not the cross and something else that saves us; rather, it is the blood of Jesus only. We don’t focus on the cross to be forgiven so we can ‘go and sin some-more;’ this attitude would seek to abuse the grace of God. Focusing on Jesus while maintaining a sinful lifestyle is hypocrisy and evidence we don’t believe. Instead of looking at Jesus on the cross in humility and contriteness of heart, we’re looking at Him in derision and contempt, in fact mocking the holy sacrifice that was made for us. The reason we say the gospel is so simple a little child can understand it is that many of those children are not horrible sinners like we adults have become. We pick up nasty habits along the way and often develop deleterious coping skills and accumulate evil thoughts and ideas and unconstructive attitudes and values that negatively impact our fellow man and us. These are the things that complicate the gospel. It is so simple a little child can understand, only because they intend to obey it. Their intent is not to ride the fence or believe in God while maintaining their old lifestyle, and hopefully sneaking into heaven by the skin of our teeth. We try to tell somebody about Jesus and they warn us not to discuss religion or politics, because they are both equally confusing, but perhaps for the same reason, because of sin and a lack of willingness to repent.

Jn 3,14-17

(124l) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Love is the action of God’s faith

(207l) Salvation >> Salvation verses >> The kindness of God >> God is kind to sinners >> He seeks and saves that which was lost

(209k) Salvation >> The salvation of God >> Jesus is our sacrifice >> Jesus paid the price for us >> Father sent His son to the cross – Jn 3-16 is by far the most popular verse in the Bible for good reason; it flows with grace and mercy. This is the first time in the gospel of John that Jesus spoke about the love of the Father for the world. It was not Jesus’ will to come here; it was His Father’s will. It was a good thing that Jesus did not come on His own initiative. Instead, God so loved the world that He sent His Son to offer His body on the cross as a sacrifice to the Father as a propitiation for the sin of mankind. Jesus didn’t go to the cross for us; He did it for His Father. That is, the cross does not represent the grace and mercy of Christ, but the grace and mercy of the Father. By the same token, Jesus did not assert to love the world; that was His Father’s claim. Jesus claimed to love the Church.

Jn 3-14,15

(118h) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Eyes of your spirit >> Giving God your attention >> Resolutely focus on the glory of God >> Focus on Jesus – The serpent in this verse was a statue that Moses made by the command of the Lord to counteract a plague, that anyone who looked at the bronze serpent was healed of the snakebite (Numbers 21,6-9). So, it was a simple act of obedience, a small command yielding big results. All they had to do was look at the erected statue on a pole and they would be healed, but of course the way Jesus was using it was for us to resolutely focus on the sacrifice of His body. When they nailed His hands and feet to the cross and then dropped it into its stand, jarring His pinned body causing unimaginable pain, those huddled around Him, His mother and disciples and the rest, raised their eyes to Jesus and beheld the man as if looking at Moses’ serpent, and they were healed of all their sin. This was to show just how simple a plan of salvation God has made for us. It was a simple act of obedience in the days of Moses, and in our day it is a resolution to focus on the blood sacrifice of Christ. The analogy was meant to emphasize the fact that Jesus is the focus of our lives now and into eternity.

Jn 3-15,16

(205e) Salvation >> Salvation is based on God’s promises >> According to promise >> Promise of eternal life

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16&17 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

Jn 3-16,17

(87c) Thy kingdom come >> Obey all the will of God >> Jesus obeys all of the Father’s will 

(253ja) Trinity >> Relationship between Father and Son >> Jesus is subject to the Father >> Jesus is under the authority of the Father >> Jesus did His Father's will – The Father is the person of the trinity that most represents “God.” He is the person of the Godhead with utmost authority. He disseminated His love for mankind to the other members of the trinity, who are in perfect harmony with Him. So, the Son and the Holy Spirit are in perfect agreement with the Father about His love for the world, but it is important to know that the love of God originated from the Father. In this way we know for certain that God loves us with His entire being. This small difference is monumental when interpreting the rest of the New Testament, more specifically about some other statements that Jesus made in the gospel of John. When Jesus taught us about God, the number one thing He stressed was the hierarchy of authority within the trinity, who all had separate offices, but all converged to represent one God. For example, the Holy Spirit dwells in us, and we have a written record of Jesus, some of the things He said and did, but what do we know about the Father, except that Jesus is the exact representation of His nature. Yet, look how different Jesus is from the Holy Spirit. We can only assume the Father is equally different from the other two members of the trinity. One thing we know for sure about the Father, He loves us. What else matters?

Jn 3-16

(34b) Gift of God >> God’s generosity >> Believer owns everything >> Trinity belongs to us >> Father belongs to us – Some might feel a little disappointed that Christ did not initiate the grace and mercy of God; rather, the Father initiated it. Actually, it is better this way, for now we know that the Father will be happy we are there, and we can be confident that heaven will receive us from the top-down. What if salvaging a people from the world to be His worshippers were Jesus’ idea, and the Father disagreed with Him about it? Throughout all eternity we would be looking over our shoulder wondering what the Father might do. Not to worry, it was the Father’s generous will that we should become the bride of Christ and live with Him forever.

(35a) Gift of God >> God is willing to Give >> He is generous with the flesh of His Son

(88c) Thy kingdom come >> Faith produces works >> Relationship between faith and works >> Faith without works is dead

(123d) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Love >> Spiritual affection >> Compassion >> Reaching out to those in need

(165g) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> Do not partake of the world >> Be in the world but not of the world

(216k) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> God’s will over man >> God Is Independent Of His Creation >> You cannot control God’s desire for you >> man is not in control of God’s gift -- This verse goes with verse 27

Jn 3,17-21

(202h) Denying Christ >> Man chooses his own destiny apart from God >> Running from the word of God >> Running from the witness of God – Before Jesus came, man’s judgment could not be any more severe than breaking the law through an evil conscience that was established for men to follow prior to the Lord’s appearance. God gave man a conscience and he broke that conscience during the days of Noah, and the whole world became corrupt, so He sent a flood upon the earth to destroy them, except for Noah and his family. Once Noah repopulated the earth, God spoke to Abraham and from his loins he created Israel, and through Israel Jesus came into the world and told us, “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also” (Jn 15-22,23). They had their conscience, but God predestined His Son to come and preemptively judged the world in Noah’s day through Christ. Had the Father sent His Son in the days of Noah, man would have almost immediately killed Him. God has partially judged the world throughout man’s reign on earth compared to the prophesied judgment in the last days. God added the law to man’s conscience through Moses, making their sin more severe, and now that Jesus has come, man’s sin has exponentially increased in preparation for the fulfillment of endtime prophecy.

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18 "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Jn 3,18-21

(47j) Judgment >> God judges the world >> Eternal judgment against unbelief toward Christ – The Father is not willing that Christ should judge anyone, but that all men should be saved through Him. Nevertheless, He will judge those who refuse the salvation of His cross. There is something we must do to be saved, but there’s nothing we need do to be condemned, since our unbelief has already judged us unworthy of eternal life. Believing in Jesus is an act of faith, but if we do not act, our bodily flesh, which is under the curse, will choose for us not to believe in God. We must decide for ourselves to believe that God sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sin. Believing in His blood sacrifice is sufficient to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, no matter what we’ve done. However, if we choose not to believe, we will be judged by default.

(107m) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Hearing from God >> The Bible will lead you to truth >> True light – Light represents Jesus as the word of God, who is the epitome of truth. Terms in the Bible such as light and darkness, tend to get displaced about their meanings, but light actually means truth. When someone has a good idea, a light bulb shines over his head, and in the case when we are born-again the Holy Spirit of truth enlightens our minds. This has been the very core of Christianity throughout the age of grace. Jesus called Him the Spirit of truth, for the Holy Spirit and the word of God are one and the same, just as Jesus and God's truth are one and the same. This means that Jesus is the embodiment of the Holy Spirit. To speak about the Holy Spirit is to speak about the very origins of God’s truth, and to speak about God’s truth is to refer to Jesus. If God’s people were to seek the truth with all their hearts, it would transform the Church overnight, for God anoints His people who seek the truth that is in Jesus. 

(200j) Denying Christ >> Excuses for rejecting Christ >> Using irresponsibility as an excuse to reject God >> Using your sinful nature as an excuse to sin

(201c) Denying Christ >> Whoever is not with Jesus is against him >> You are against Christ when your unbelief materializes >> If your heart is not with Him your deeds are against Him

(208c) Salvation >> The salvation of God >> Salvation verses >> The expectations of God >> God expects us to repent and be saved

(212h) Sovereignty >> God is infinite >> God is all knowing >> Nothing hidden >> God exposes things hidden in darkness – Some people almost never think about God, and for this reason they sin, because they have no consciousness of God. If we were to bring God into the subject, it would do no good, because their minds are hardened by the darkness, like shining a light down an abyss, get a brighter light and we still can’t see the bottom. This describes some people; their darkness seems infinite. There are other people who are sinners and they know it; their conscience bothers them. They have hope and should start living for Jesus. The sins we regret and confess to the Lord are the sins for which we should have no consciousness, but there are some things we have done that we just can’t seem to forget; every time we think about them we get a twinge, something we may have said or done to somebody. These guilt feeling are like phantom pain from a amputated limb. God has forgiven us because we live and walk in the light of God’s truth.

(16h) Continuing in sin to avoid the light (Key verse)

(17a) Sin >> Continuing in sin to avoid the light >> Man hates God – Man hates the Jew because he hates God. Tell that to an anti-Semite and they would deny it, but it is true just the same. They can write a laundry list of things they think the Jews have done to deserve their hatred, but most everything on the list cannot be verified, and the rest does not deserve the level of hatred they have received. Go back to Adam and Eve to discover man’s hatred of God. Adam’s taking of the fruit from the hand of Eve was not innocent, because God told him beforehand not to touch it. It was a direct violation of God’s command, and for him to have done that was not based on rebellion only, but also on a hatred of God, not before he took the fruit, but afterward. We are talking about the mystery of lawlessness. The consequence of eating the forbidden fruit was separation from God, which is the cause of his hatred. This mystery of lawlessness explains why the sinner naturally and instinctively hates God.

(20cb) Sin >> Nature of sin >> Unbelief >> Having a mind that is unable to receive >> Religion doesn't know how to believe in God -- These verses go with verses 9-12. The world might make perfect sense to most people, but just because it makes sense doesn’t make it true. It is like in a math test, we put down our answer that makes the most sense to us, but is it the right answer? Even if the teacher tells us how we went wrong, if we don’t understand mathematics the explanation will not help. Many people think Christianity is not based on the truth, but that is the wrong answer, and if we try to explain spiritual things to them, they don’t get it. That doesn’t mean the spirit realm doesn’t exist; it only means they are completely duped by the god of this world. Darkness represents the opposite of truth, which is primarily the opposite spirit of Christ, which is antichrist. He is the epitome of darkness, and his word is the opposite of God’s word. Therefore, when the world rejects Christ, they are inadvertently agreeing with the devil and siding with him.

(21h) Sin >> Premeditated sin >> Having no intensions of doing the will of God – Before Jesus came, how could God judge the world for loving darkness, since they had no alternative? Consequently, God sent the light into the world as an alternative to darkness, and most people since then have chosen darkness over the light. By this God can judge the world because it can now be proven that they love darkness over the light. Jesus explained God to us and told us His Father’s expectations of how we should live and what we can do to please Him, and people ran from the knowledge of God and have been running from Him ever since. They don’t want to know God, because the world has it’s own truth, which Jesus called darkness, and it too has a spiritual origin. 

(64k) Paradox >> Anomalies >> God helps Satan >> God’s judgments accomplish the devil’s will

(153e) Witness >> Validity of the Father >> God bears witness against the world >> Shame >> Hiding under a cloud of guilt >> Preferring darkness over the light – Jesus defines the nature of his judgment as a contrast between light and darkness. Hence, the basis of God’s judgment is that those who do not believe prefer darkness over the light. That is, they prefer the evil that is present in their flesh to the righteousness that God offers them through the cross. Evil has the effect of driving us away from the light. The power of darkness and evil has an aversion to God, making it difficult to come to the light. Our evil causes us to hate the light. So, we must stop sinning in order to remove the obstacle that stands in our way of seeking God. It says that those who do evil do not come to the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. Therefore, the opposite also must be true. Those who practice the truth are attracted to the light. We seek the light because we want it to confirm our righteousness as originating from God (verse 21).

(166b) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> Wisdom of the world >> Man’s wisdom excuses his sinful nature >> Man’s wisdom gives reason to reject God

(182d) Works of the devil >> The origin of lawlessness >> Deception >> Self deception >> Trying to hide from God

(195d) Denying Christ >> Man exercises his will against God >> Idolatry >> Serving two masters >> You cannot serve righteousness and sin together

(199h) Denying Christ >> Man chooses his own destiny apart from God >> Rejecting Christ >> The world rejects God >> Rejecting Christ to keep the world

(201d) Denying Christ >> Jesus is an offense >> Truth offends error >> The word offends peoples’ sinful lifestyles

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Jn 3-18,19

(40a) Judgment >> Jesus is the judge >> Jesus judges the world’s unbelief – By the standard of the cross, being salvation to everyone who believes, by the same standard the cross is judgment to those who reject His offer of forgiveness and eternal life. We have a choice of one or the other; He will be our savior or our judge. Jesus was speaking as much to those who condemned Him to death, to those who wielded the cat-o-nine-tails across His back and to those who drove the nails into His hands and feet, as to those in our time.

Jn 3-18

(19m) Sin >> Nature of sin >> Unwilling to believe >> Spirit of unbelief

(33h) Gift of God >> Believers are children >> God is our Father >> Children are being molded after their heavenly Father -- This verse goes with verse 7

(120a) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Curse of God is broken >> Curse of God’s Judgment is broken

(253eb) Trinity >> Relationship between Father and Son >> Jesus is equal with the Father >> Jesus has all the internal qualities of the Father >> Jesus is the Son of God >> Authority of the Son of God

19&20 "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. 20 "For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 

Jn 3,19-21

(25a) Sin >> Poverty (Forms of fear) >> Hate the truth – We either love Jesus or we hate Him, but there is no liking or disliking Him. There is no evidence in Scripture that God likes or dislikes anything; He either loves something or He hates it, and we feel the same way about Jesus, because He is spiritual, and when we enter the spiritual realm, like and dislike do not exist. Therefore, when we discus the gospel with someone and the person claims to like or dislike the Lord, we know that he is lying. Remember the 1969 song, “Jesus is just alright with me” by the Byrds? The lyrics are lying about the true feelings of the author, Arthur Reid Reynolds.

(112i) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Light >> Light exposes sin >> Light reveals hidden motives – The reason Jesus used “light” as an allegory is that it perfectly fits with spiritual matters. When we turn on a light, the darkness that once filled the room suddenly disappears, and when we turn off the light, darkness fills the void. Here on earth under its atmosphere a vacuum is almost impossible, yet the vacuum state is the norm in outer space, so we can say that a vacuum is not really a thing but is the normal state in the absence of an atmosphere. Likewise, darkness is not really a thing but is the normal state in the absence of light. So what does that say about Satan, that he is not a legitimate entity? This is true; his existence is the result of the absence of God! So too, darkness is real, but can only exist apart from light. Twilight is then seen as a sliding continuum between light and darkness. Jesus used the allegory of light and darkness to make the point that the truth exposes our evil deeds that we do outside the knowledge of God. He can see us just fine, according to Psalm 139-12, “Even the darkness is not dark to You, and the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You.” We can go into the darkest room and commit sin and God can see us, but our minds are immersed in ignorance.

(165a) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> The world is at enmity with God >> The world rejects God – God had been saying to man, ‘You love your darkness,’ and man’s reply has been, ‘No I don’t, and You can’t prove it.’ Man might be willing to confess a few sins to God, but he would deny calling his works sin throughout the ages, saying that it is just God’s opinion. There had been no other standard for man’s conduct. In his darkness man has treated the law as merely God’s opinion, but when Jesus came in the likeness of human flesh, He set a standard of conduct for mankind that God will use to judge each person. Now that Jesus has come we have a choice to make; will we give up our darkness for the light, or will we keep our darkness and shun the light? It won’t go well with those who have rejected Him! Sinners who have no intention of repenting, Jesus is the worst thing that will ever happen to them, because now God can prove that their wickedness is not just His opinion.

(184a) Works of the devil >> The origin of lawlessness >> Darkness >> Hiding behind your own imagination >> Hiding behind a false partition – At the White Throne Judgment, man’s sin will tell God that we thought He was evil, and God will tell them that they have accused Him of sin for the last time. They rejected His Son and His offer of forgiveness and eternal life, proving beyond the shadow of a doubt that they want nothing to do with God or His kingdom, so God prepared a place for them in darkness that they love so much. They will spend eternity living in an environment that they have chosen for themselves. If hell were not hellish from the start, perhaps starting in paradise, man would soon turn it into hell, just like they are doing to the earth. For God to create hell is to prearrange his preferred environment for him, just as Jesus promised His people, “I go to prepare a place for you” (Jn 14-2), a place that befits their faith in Jesus, just as He prepared a place for those who rejected Him. Sinners love darkness, and so darkness they shall have; how can they complain about that?

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Jn 3-19,20

(145i) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Jesus’ works bear witness of Himself >> Demon possession >> Human state >> Filthiness >> Rejecting the opportunity to be holy

(180h) Works of the devil >> Practicing witchcraft >> Rebellion >> Rebelling against God’s narrow way >> Rebelling against the word of God – Jesus gave man a choice between light and darkness. Before Jesus came man didn’t have a choice; all he had was darkness. Man had his own arbitrary views about God; it was up to the individual to determine on his own whether God love him, or perhaps there was no God at all. Before Christ, man felt alone and on his own, left to his own devices to fend for himself. Israel came and tried to explain God to man, yet Israel was not much of an example. When Jesus came and exemplified His Father, He came as the exact representation of Him; we now have a perfect example of God. Our example of God the Father is that He loved us so much “He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (Jn 3-16). Now, if people want to continue believing their own ideas about God instead of adopting the view of authoritative Scripture about the love of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, God will take that as rejection. Our answer to Him is perfectly defined; if we decide to reject Him, we cannot deny the decision we made. Those who stand at the White Throne Judgment and try to explain their situation will have no defense. All they can say is that they didn’t believe the testimony of the Holy Bible; they didn’t believe it was God’s word; they thought it was just a product of man’s vivid imagination. No doubt God will hear that many times at the White Throne Judgment, but they will not be able to explain away the blood of Jesus that easy. God might tell them that they could have done a little investigating and discovered the Scriptures were authoritative, or they could have believed on their own that God was good, but they decided with the rest of the world that God was evil, and so they did evil in His sight, thinking they were an accurate reflection of their maker.

(242d) Kingdom of God >> Opposition toward the Kingdom of God >> Persecuting the kingdom >> Persecuting God >> Persecuting righteousness

(2l) Responsibility >> Avoid offending God >> Get out of His way >> Do not stumble over Him

(25a) Hate (Key verse)

(57k) Paradox >> Opposites >> More you sin the less tendency you have to repent

(183g) Works of the devil >> The origin of lawlessness >> Spirit of Error (Anti-Christ / Anti-Semitism) >> Spirit of the broad road >> Spirit of the world

21-26 "But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God." 22 After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He was spending time with them and baptizing. 23 John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there; and people were coming and were being baptized - 24 for John had not yet been thrown into prison. 25 Therefore there arose a discussion on the part of John's disciples with a Jew about purification. 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."

Jn 3-21

(30c) Gift of God >> God knows our needs >> He is the source of our obedience

(32h) Gift of God >> Father will honor you if you die to self >> Your obedience – Anyone who lives like a Christian comes to the light, in order for God to honor his obedience; otherwise, what good would it do if a person practiced a righteousness of his own without ever coming to the light and giving credit to God? Actually, the person who lives a good life, but is not a Christian is as big a sinner as the sinner. The way the gospel works according to Scripture, we start with a seed that God has given us (1Pet 1-23), a desire to do what is good and right, and we take that seed to God and lay it at His feet as our offering, and He gives us His Spirit in return, who teaches us about His word, and by these He enables us to produce a righteousness that has been wrought in God. When the man returns to the light with a better offering, God will transform His righteousness into a greater portion of the Spirit, just as He did at first, and as Paul said in 2Cor 3-18, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” This Spirit that He gives us is the anointing that empowers us to produce a righteousness that rises from glory to glory, and each time we return with a better offering, He measures out a greater portion of His Spirit prepared for us, until we reach the fullness of our potential in Christ. Jesus said to remain there (Jn 15-16), and Paul said that God has given us a measure of faith (Rom 12-3), and that measure works to produce a righteousness that we use for our offering to beseech God to walk in the fullness of our potential.

(90c) Thy kingdom come >> Keeping the law >> Law is our tutor >> It prepares your heart to receive Christ

(93k) Thy kingdom come >> Following Jesus as He lights the way

(115l) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Working the grace of God >> Through Good Works >> Works that God prepared for you

(119e) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Freedom >> Fences of freedom >> Freedom in Christ

(128m) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Bearing fruit >> Evidence of your fruit >> Good fruit is proof that God is working in you

(193l) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Turn from sin to God >> Run to God >> Run to God in your freedom to choose righteousness

(194i) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Turn from sin to God >> Yielding >> Yield to God’s right to direct your way

(228f) Kingdom of God >> God’s kingdom is a living organism >> God working in you >> God is working in you to place you in His will >> To place you on the trail of good works – Here lies the difference between a self-righteous person and a true Christian; the self-righteous person seeks glory for himself in the good things he does, whereas the Christian understands that he could not please God if it weren’t for Jesus paying the price for his forgiveness, and for placing him on his designated trail of good works that God had prepared for him. This trail was designed and ordained by God for us to walk, so if it weren’t for God working in us, we could not please Him. We know that apart from God we can do nothing (Jn 15-5), so every good work we do in His name is the result of Him. The Christian performs miraculous works, because the trail under our feet is divine. It is only natural that we should give God the glory for the good things we do. In contrast, the sinner’s good works apart from God he attributes to himself, which is just another form of evil. When he takes credit for his own good works, he has his reward in full.

(231c) Kingdom of God >> God’s kingdom is a living organism >> Mystery of godliness >> God’s grace is the mystery of godliness >> God working in you is a mystery

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Jn 3,22-26

(8m) Responsibility >> Responsible to defend God’s cause >> Preparing process >> Laying the foundation of freedom – John’s disciples conversed with him about the subject of purification. So repentance and purification are associated with baptism. The purpose of repentance is purification, to “cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2Cor 7-1). Jesus’ whole message and preaching about the Kingdom of God revolved around repentance, which acts as a preparing process required for the believer to integrate into the movement of God to receive the coming kingdom through the Spirit. Jesus never graduated to a higher subject than repentance in all His preaching. When He was crucified, rose from the dead and ascended to the Father, He sent the Holy Spirit in His place, showing that the baptism of repentance was the basis for the ministry of the Spirit. We don’t repent in order to be saved, and we don’t repent in order to receive the indwelling Holy Spirit; otherwise the gift of God would be considered a wage that was due us. Instead, we repent as a normal response to dealing with a holy God. If the foundation of God’s coming kingdom is based on repentance, how much more is the ministry of the Spirit based on obedience. The Spirit is the very substance of His kingdom, for when we obey the Him, we clothe ourselves with the works of God. God has a new life for us, based on a different kingdom, different works and a different Spirit apart from the world. However, people are so attached to this world that they cannot visualize weaning off it and attaching themselves to God and doing His will.

(250f) Priorities >> God’s prerequisites >> Sequence of priorities >> Natural then the spiritual (obedience then anointing) – In Jn 4-2 it says, “Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were.” Jesus didn’t baptize anyone for the same reason the Apostle Paul didn’t baptize anyone. 1Cor 1-14,15 says, “I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one would say you were baptized in my name.” Had Jesus baptized, they would have counted it an advantage over others who were baptized by John or the disciples. Jesus didn’t baptize people so they couldn’t boast in their flesh about it and later turn it into a religion. John’s disciples didn’t understand why he and Jesus weren’t walking together. Instead, they walked separately, going in the same direction, like two rails of the same train track, walking parallel with each other, one representing repentance and the other representing the upcoming ministry of the Spirit. John wasn’t looking to Jesus for a clue when to turn and Jesus wasn’t looking to John; they both turned in the same direction by the same Spirit who spoke to both of them. They were employing the same baptism, being not John’s ceremony and not Jesus’ ceremony, but the Father’s ceremony, and both were baptizing for repentance into one Spirit, for repentance is the basis of receiving the Spirit. Jesus’ message was, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mat 4-17). His message was not about the Spirit but about repentance, though he often mentioned the Spirit who would come later.

27-30 John answered and said, "A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven. 28 "You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, 'I am not the Christ,' but, 'I have been sent ahead of Him.' 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. So this joy of mine has been made full. 30 "He must increase, but I must decrease.

Jn 3-27

(216k) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> God’s will over man >> God Is Independent Of His Creation >> You cannot control God’s desire for you >> man is not in control of God’s gift -- This verse goes with verse 16. John is saying that if you don’t have anything from heaven, then you don’t have anything. The things pertaining to the new covenant are spiritual in nature, making it easy for us to discern who is our brother and who is not. If someone possesses something from God, it will be obvious to all, but those who don’t will persecute those who do. The one who is truly spiritual is different from a man of the earth, whose secularity precedes him, who receives his gifts from the world and whose possessions are the result of his religion.

Jn 3,28-30

(77m) Thy kingdom come >> Being Humble Before God >> Exalting God through humility – Jesus’ great confession was that He was the Christ, while John’s great confession was that he was not the Christ. We all know why Jesus’ confession was great, but what made John’s confession so great was that it indicated He was not seeking his own glory, but the glory of God. According to Jesus, that is what made John one of the greatest men “born of women” (Mat 11-11). John was always mindful of who he was and who he was not. He was merely a voice crying in the wilderness. John the Baptist’s message and ministry came to Him at great cost, and he prepared for it his whole life, spending months if not years living in the wilderness eating locusts and wild honey. He was not about to sacrifice it all for a few moments of personal glory, only to be judged by God later and lose the reward, and put a stain on Christ’s ministry in the process. John the Baptist and Jesus were actually related; they were cousins. Jesus’ brothers never acknowledged Jesus as the Christ, being spiritually blind, but John the Baptist was not blind. He was given a blessing from heaven from the very beginning of his life. This is the degree that John the Baptist had every intention of fulfilling his ministry and glorifying Jesus as the Christ: He leapt in his mother’s womb when Mary, the mother of Jesus, entered the room, pregnant with the fetus of God’s Son. He summarized his greatest strength in verse 30, “He must increase, but I must decrease,” encapsulating the very heart and soul of God’s kingdom, which is based on the least being the greatest.

Jn 3-28

(77f) Thy kingdom come >> Humility >> Refusing the glory of man >> Rejecting the worship of men

Jn 3-29

(101f) Thy kingdom come >> Zeal >> Fulfill your calling with zeal

(106f) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Hearing from God >> Attaining the hearing ear >> When He speaks and what He says

Jn 3-30

(56h) Paradox >> Opposites >> He must increase, but I must decrease

(192b) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Result of putting off the old man >> Gain by losing >> Life for life >> Losing your life to gain God’s purpose

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31-34 "He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. 32 "What He has seen and heard, of that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. 33 "He who has received His testimony has set his seal to this, that God is true. 34 "For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure.

Jn 3-31

(66g) Authority >> Jesus’ authority >> He owns everything from the father -- This verse goes with verse 35

(66i) Authority >> Jesus’ authority >> Jesus is the power of God >> Demonstration of His Spirit

(84k) Thy kingdom come >> Your words can lead to your own demise >> They will condemn you

(156l) Witness >> Validity of the believer >> Evidence of being hell-bound >> Living an ungodly lifestyle >> Associating with the world

(168g) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> The world listens to itself >> The world speaks in it’s own words – This is an interesting choice of words. “He who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth.” This refers to secularism, which is founded on earthly principles, corresponding with nature, primarily the principle of Survival of the Fittest, which has nothing to do with God. Yet, he who is from heaven is above all. Those who are of the earth perpetuate a system that rewards the greatest and subjects the least to servitude, but there is one who is greater than the greatest. Those who are of the earth do not acknowledge Him, because He is not from the earth. The things that Jesus came to give us are the opposite of nature. The natural world has no choice but to take from other living beings in order to survive, but the Kingdom of Heaven is founded on opposite principles, that of giving instead of taking. Mankind is impoverished in every way, so God has come to give us what we need to overcome the curse, but John said that no one receives His witness, because He does not correspond with the world. People only accept things they understand and the only thing the world understands is itself. Jesus came to give us something better, the Kingdom of Heaven, founded on the principles of giving and love, not on taking and envy. 

Jn 3,32-34

(153b) Witness >> Validity of the Father >> Witnesses of the father >> Jesus bears witness of the Father

Jn 3-32

(168f) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> The world listens to itself >> The world receives itself – John the Baptist spoke much like Jesus and the apostle John. They all used the same on/off, black/white, true/false vernacular, and they all said that the world is wrong and that God is right, and that there is nothing in the world God doesn’t need to redeem before it is acceptable to Him. Jesus testified about God and nobody received His testimony and then John said that the one who receives His testimony has set his seal to this: that God is true. So the term “no one” appears inaccurate, because there are some who have received His testimony. John was saying that everyone in the world who is chosen of God receives Him, but the rest are hardened.

(185h) Works of the devil >> The result of lawlessness >> Blasphemy >> Responding with contempt to the Holy Spirit >> Resisting the Holy Spirit

Jn 3-33

(107f) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Hearing From God >> Truth of the trinity >> Father is truth

(132d) Temple >> Your body is the temple of God >> Holy Spirit is in God’s people >> God gives his spirit as a pledge >> His Spirit is a seal – To those who receive His testimony have set their seal to this, that God is true. The world does not receive Christ, because the world is false. Those who are born of God believe in Jesus; they believe everything He said, not just some of it. The seal the True Church uses to certify those who belong to Him is that none of us find fault with God. To say this is also to say that no one who is of God is false, hence they all know the truth and speak the truth. Conversely, there are many people, including some Bible scholars, who are not saved, who know the Bible backward and forward but don’t know the truth. The Bible says that the truth is in Jesus (Eph 4-21), but they don’t know Him. They have never made a personal commitment to Him, because they don’t believe in Him. Some may have committed their lives to learning about Him, but God says that is not good enough. He doesn’t care if we know what He said; He only cares if we do what He said. Moreover, we don’t need to ask Jesus to be born-again; if we do his will, He will place His Spirit in us and we will be born of God, which is His seal in us.

Jn 3-34

(35c) Gift of God >> God is willing to Give >> God’s immeasurable generosity – The one who has the Spirit without measure possesses all things; therefore, to the degree of our anointing as Christians (anointed ones) is the degree to which we possess the things of God. Paul said that we possess all things (1Cor 3,21-23). Collectively, we have been given all things just as the Father has given all things to His Son, who in turn has delegated all things to us. On an individual basis we will receive an inheritance from God, as the Israelites inherited the promise land, a plot of land where they could set the sole of their foot as farmers and make a living on their own property, a piece of the land of Canaan that flowed with milk and honey.

(87c) Thy kingdom come >> Obey all the will of God >> Jesus obeys all of the Father’s will

(111c) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Spirit and the word >> Spirit of truth – John equated the word of God with the Holy Spirit. Those who speak the word of God have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, and the Spirit follows His word and will attempt to persuade the hearer of the truth.

(191a) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Separation from the old man >> Baptism >> Immersed in His Spirit

(255d) Trinity >> Holy Spirit’s relationship between Father and Son >> God’s word is Spirit >> Jesus is the word of the Spirit >> Jesus is the authority of God’s word – The Father had anointed Jesus beyond measure, like a hill of sand that we are told to move with a bucket. We fill the bucket many times before we decide it is impossible to move all the sand. It is without measure, though it is a limited amount, and this is probably what the Bible is saying. He was so greatly anointed it was impractical to measure it. We could say He had an infinite anointing, though Jesus was a finite person with a body of human flesh; He could not receive an infinite anointing, but He did possess an anointing stronger than any person who ever lived before or after Him. It says in Rom 12-3 that each believer has been given a measure of faith, and “faith” can be interpreted as anointing, which results from walking the Spirit. In other words, there is a one-to-one correlation between our faith and the anointing. The degree of our faith is the measure of anointing we can achieve, and we should not attempt to go beyond that (Rom 12-6).

35&36 "The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. 36 "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."

Jn 3-35,36

(144g) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Witnesses of Jesus >> Trinity bears witness of Jesus >> Father bears witness of His Son

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Jn 3-35

(66g) Authority >> Jesus’ authority >> He owns everything from the father -- This verse goes with verse 31

(253a) Trinity >> Relationship between Father and Son >> Jesus is equal with the Father >> Jesus has all the external qualities of the Father >> Son has equal authority with the Father

(21d) Sin >> Disobedience will condemn you to hell – The Bible says that the one who does not obey what he believes “will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” Of course Jesus is talking about hell. Most people, if they were given the choice to live any way they wished in this life or living for God, would prefer this life, so long as there were no consequences, but what did Jesus say, “the wrath of God abides on him.” This suggests that there are consequences. For God to simply blink someone out of existence is hardly a consequence, because then they wouldn’t even know they existed. How is there any consequence to that? The consequence to which Jesus was referring was eternal damnation, where the soul does not die and the fire is not quenched (Mk 9-44,46,48). Nobody really knows the torment of hell anymore than anyone knows the glory of heaven, but the Bible teaches that heaven is very wonderful, which means that hell must be very horrible. Why do people decide not to serve the Lord if they know what is waiting for them at the end of this life? It is because they don’t really believe it. Maybe they believe in terms of mental ascent, but if they obeyed their mental ascent about hell, maybe they would repent and serve God in fear of eternity. Fact is, the person who has a mental ascent about heaven and the person who has a mental ascent about hell are just about equal.

(26ba) Sin >> Consequences of sin >> Death is hell >> Rejecting Christ has the sentence of hell

(40b) Judgment >> Jesus is the judge >> Jesus judges the world’s disobedience

(47e) Judgment >> God Judges the world >> Hell is a place of the dead

(51b) Judgment >> Judging the Church with the world >> Warning about hell

(85k) Belief (Key verse)

(85m) Thy kingdom come >> Belief >> Treating the knowledge of God as fact >> Believing the Son by obeying the Father >> Obeying the Father through the son (The old covenant through the new) -- This verse goes with verses 14-21 The New American Standard Bible in this verse has an interchanging of the words believe and obey, (used in exactly the same way) whereas the KJV uses the word “believe” in both instances. The NAS is making the point that to believe in Jesus is to obey the Holy Spirit. In this way we can say that there is really no believing in God without obedience. The advantage of this view is there is no need for presumption, since believing is implied in our obedience (Jm 2-18), for we cannot have one without the other. If we believe but do not obey, the Bible says we are lying to ourselves and the truth is not in us (1Jn 1-8). To lie to self is to lie to God, and people who lie to God do not know Him. Everyone does this on occasion, but the person who practices lying to the Holy Spirit does not know God. It we don’t believe the Son of God by obeying Him, then the wrath of God abides on us. It is not complicated and there is no gray area. 

(87b) Thy kingdom come >> Obedience >> Be doers of the word from the heart >> We have no choice but to be doers of the word – If we don’t obey Christ, He says it is the same as not believing in Him. There are many so-called good people in the world who do not believe in Jesus (they obey Christ without believing in Him). Believing ascribes our righteousness to Christ, as Jesus said in Jn 3-21, “He who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.” When we compare this rendition of the gospel with some of the more popular belief systems in the world today, they usually fall short of obedience. Their tainted theology has been handed to them, not by the Scriptures (they didn’t necessarily read the Bible for themselves); rather, they allowed people to tell them what to believe. What they had been told is more like mental ascent than real faith. They think that believing in a set of doctrines will get them to heaven without obeying them. No writer of the New Testament ever taught this, not Jesus, not James, not John, and not even Paul. When we look at Paul’s life and his commitment to the gospel, it was anything but mental ascent, so why would he teach it?

(88c) Thy kingdom come >> Faith produces works >> Relationship between faith and works >> Faith without works is dead

(205aa) Salvation >> Verses useful in evangelism -- This verse goes with verses 14-21

(210f) Salvation >> The salvation of God >> Jesus is our savior >> We must believe in the savior to be saved

(244d) Kingdom of God >> The eternal kingdom >> Eternal life of the trinity >> Jesus is the source of eternal life

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