Title: This is right/John 3:4
The content is right
John 3:4
2001.07.01 Sunday Worship
The life of a person who lived without knowing what faith is, a life changed by realizing and knowing, and a life that only depends on God and prays when he realizes that life is not in his own strength. This is the life of a believer. On the plane, a woman read a book that it took 35 years to get to know her father. I have known the father of the flesh, but it is 35 years... To know God and to know the spirit world is not an easy task.
Nicodemus in the text is Jesus Christ, a person who lived without knowing the truth and settled his life by knowing, realizing, righteously, beautifully, and believing.
First: I didn't know… (John 3:4)
Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews and a Pharisee, came to Jesus at night. Jesus: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Nicodemus: How can a man be born when he is old? Can you enter the second mother's womb and fly?
Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a powerful Jewish official (a member of the Sanhedrin) (verse 1), and a teacher of the people of Israel who was well versed in the law (verse 10), who had all the conditions that the Jews would envy.
However, if you look at the conversation with Jesus, you can see that he is very ignorant of the spiritual world and the spiritual world.
Who God is, what the afterlife is like, and what rebirth is cannot be known through the physical thoughts and physiological judgments of the visible world. The spiritual world transcends the human realm, and it is impossible to know the spirit world through the fallen reason of man. That is why Augustine emphasized that “the reason of man must be circumcised.”
“Spiritual things are discerned by spiritual things” (1 Corinthians 2:13).
Recent advances in genetic engineering have led to successful cloning of animals, and it is being argued that human cloning is possible. Furthermore, a genome map that could unravel the mystery of human life was completed in February this year by a US and multinational research team.
We do not know how much science can discover about human life, which is God's own realm, but what we can know is only metaphysical about the body, and we cannot even access or even imagine the world of the soul. As far as the spirit is concerned, the human mind is ignorant.
“Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the wise man in this generation? Has not God made the wisdom of this world foolish?” (1 Corinthians 1:20).
When Nicodemus asked a physical and biological question about the truth of regeneration, CH Dods said that he was ridiculing Jesus' words that did not fit common sense. Because I was ignorant of the world. ‘How’ is a question of fools who do not know the spiritual world. The question in the Bible should be the question of ‘why’, not ‘how’.
Paul, he said, “I know everything. I can do anything. It was Saul who thought, “Everything I do is right.” But when he realized that knowing Jesus was the noblest knowledge, it was Paul who threw away all his bragging rights and began to regard them as dung. “The soul of ignorance has no mirror to reflect your soul.” In the words of Khalil Gibran.
A church school evangelist said during a children's service sermon, “The strong Samson of the Old Testament is the son of his mother, who had no children, who prayed to God.” Then a young student said, “Evangelist, no, you are wrong. Hannah is Samuel's mother, and Samson's mother's name is not in the Bible." The teaching of the ignorant makes the mistake of not only putting himself to shame, but also misleading those who are being taught.
Second: Okay... (John 7:51)
“Does our law judge a man before it listens to a man and knows what he has done?” This was Nicodemus protesting and defending Jesus when the decision was made to remove Jesus from the Sanhedrin.
In the defense of the Lord, Nicodemus laid out two principles for judging the law. One is to listen and the other is to know actions. To put it bluntly, you must first listen to the words of Jesus, check what Jesus did, and then make a decision. Accordingly, it is an accusation of contempt for Nicodemus when other council members say, “Are you also from Galilee?” even though they know that Nicodemus is not from Galilee. Nicodemus told the truth, and the crowds trying to get rid of Jesus tried to shut the truth of Nicodemus.
Nicodemus was able to defend Jesus with courage and courage because he was in the world of knowledge, freed from ignorance of Jesus Christ. It is because I came to know a new world through meeting Jesus. To escape from ignorance of the spiritual world, we must come to Jesus and meet the Lord even by asking stupid questions.
Are there people who say they hate coming to church because they don't know, or that they can't do the Lord's work because they don't have faith? We have to come out more because we don't know and don't know, and we have to come out more to know. Only when you come to the Lord and listen to the Lord's words can you truly know the Lord, come to understand, and become a person of Jesus Christ.
Nicodemus came to the Lord without knowing it, but the Lord knew that he was worried about eternal life and that he had come to solve it. He called him to solve his troubles, and it seems that Nicodemus came to Jesus by himself, but the Lord allowed him to hear the word, understand the truth, and become a person of Jesus.
I come to God not by myself, but by the Holy Spirit. God, who is the Spirit, understands each and every one of our hearts, actions, and everything.
In 1722, Roberto was rich in Brazil. One day he went to visit a friend who worked in the mine. At that moment, the miners there were playing, and they calculated the winnings with tiny, shiny stones. When Roberto looked closely at the stones, they were diamonds. When the game was over, the miners threw the stones away, and Roberto put them all in his pocket.
After returning home, he went to Portugal and sold them. This is how Roberto became rich. The word ‘enlightenment’ appears 40 times in the New Testament, but it is mainly Jesus’ words. The reason the Lord urges ‘enlightenment’ is because only the realization of the truth can reveal the reality of true life. There is no life more foolish than the life of not knowing Jesus Christ as Jesus Christ.
“This Jesus is the stone rejected by your builders, and has become the cornerstone of the house” (Acts 4:11).
Lake Toba in Medan, Indonesia was very cool compared to other parts of Indonesia. The only reason was that it was located at an altitude of 900m above sea level, that is, the topographical difference between high and low. We live in an equally difficult and difficult world. Whether or not I know God is the only thing that makes my life light and refreshing.
Third: I lived… (John 19:39)
“Nicodemus, who had come to Jesus early at night, also brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds.”
Nicodemus, who knew and realized Jesus, became a person who not only pleaded for Jesus, but also laid down his body, wealth, honor, and life for Jesus. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, the disciples all ran away because of fear, but Nicodemus buried Jesus with Joseph of Arimathea. He was the most courageous Christian in his most dangerous time.
Myrrh was a preservative and aloes were expensive and valuable, acting as a desiccant and deodorant. Nicodemus' burial of the Lord like a king does not mean that he was simply rich, but that he truly longed for the Lord and recognized him as the true King of the Jews. I am hesitant to give my life and sacrifice for the expansion of the kingdom of God, and I am afraid and stingy because I do not know that Christ is my true Savior.
This is the story of a couple of deacons at a church meeting in Singapore. It was very difficult for the butler and his wife to get married. The reason is that the mother of a female deacon, who was a very devout believer, stubbornly opposed that she could never give her beloved daughter to a man who did not know God. I said that if a male deacon would marry me, I would believe it, but the female deacon's mother couldn't believe it, so if you want to get married, you must register with the church and bring a copy of your registration. So the male deacon registered with Youngnak Church and sent a copy.
Those who realize and know that as the Holy Spirit dwells in them, they experience that whatever is being done is not done by me, but by the Holy Spirit working in me. A father taught his boyish son the attitude of a sincere Christian. When the education was over, the son asked his father. “Dad, have I ever seen a true Christian?”
“Deeds speak louder than the mouth” is an English proverb, “Knowledge is the beginning of doing, and doing is the completion of knowing” Wang Yangming, a Confucian scholar in the Ming Dynasty. Without God's grace, human beings cannot escape from ignorance, they cannot realize, they cannot realize and live according to their eyes.