Title Dialogue of Truth (John 03:1-15)
Description Humans are higher animals that talk. Expressing people's will through words. Beliefs, thoughts, attention, and even good and bad things are expressed in words. The exchange of words between people is called dialogue. Conversations should be pure and not for the sole purpose of interest. Dialogue for life, dialogue for truth will continue to the end of the world. People sometimes become persuasive in order to match others to their Lord's love through conversation.
However, dialogue should solve problems through understanding, not persuasion, from a one-on-one standpoint. Since dialogue is not correct, dialogue between people and between people and between people and God should be done properly in this era of disconnection. I believe that the meaning of life can be realized correctly when there is dialogue like dialogue in each person's life. Depending on the content of the conversation between parents and children, between husband and wife, between siblings, between friends, and between neighbors and church members, the process of life will be interesting. Considering that today is an era in which true dialogue has been lost, it seems that there are more abnormalities than normal in every way, and more pain than joy.
Today's conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus is about the deep problems of life, that is, the fundamental problems. It is not a conversation about any interest in this world, but a conversation about eternal truth.
1. Character of Nicodemus Everyone lives with their own problems and concerns. Nicodemus says that the meaning of his name is 'conqueror of the people,' 'victory,' and 'the people'. Along with the meaning of this name, he was a Pharisee and a ruler of the Jews. In other words, he is a 70-member public member (which corresponds to a member of the National Assembly in today's terms) and is full of honor, power and wealth. He was also said to be a teacher of the people, so he is a respected man.
Nicodemus is a man who possesses everything in this world that he has nothing to envy. Outwardly, he was a person who lacked nothing. But on the side of my enemy, he has something he has not solved, so it's a matter of truth.
Nicodemus tried to solve life's problems through his own research, practice of good deeds according to the law, and his own merits, but he was filled with trouble because it was impossible.
2. Nicodemus Appearing Before Jesus Nicodemus, who had no way of communicating, heard the news of Jesus, a young man of Nazareth, and came to Jesus, convinced that Jesus could be his answer. As rumored, I came here after thinking deeply about whether the teachings of Jesus were great and powerful, and whether he was an interlocutor to answer life's problems.
Nicodemus did not have a good preconceived notion of Jesus. I knew that he was a young man whose growth, family, knowledge, and position in the village of Nazareth were not to be recognized. Nicodemus evaluated Jesus too low because of his prestige, position, learning, and honor. Conversation is possible on an equal footing and with respect.
Nicodemus was wandering in search of Jesus.
Nicodemus said to his interlocutor Jesus, 'Rabbi,' and confessed, 'You are a teacher from God.' This confession is clearly not in the sense of 'Savior' and 'Messiah'. I know that he displayed many signs of miracles.” Nicodemus, who came out for the conversation, made himself up like a Pharisee. However, there was no trust or respect for Jesus in him. Just as everyone knew about Jesus only as a teacher, a prophet, and a moralist, it can be said that Nicodemus had no faith in Jesus at all. He didn't know that he knew the depths of the heart while looking at the heart.
You discover that the distance between Jesus and Nicodemus is too far away. Whereas your Godemos is a human being, Jesus is different in personality from Jesus, who is the Son of God, the perfect true man, and the true God. They have different abilities and character. However, because Jesus came for sinners, he asked anyone to come and became an interlocutor. Jesus did not send or receive human greetings to Nicodemus.
3. Conversation with Jesus There is no sign of welcome and no politeness about Nicodemus' visit, and immediately, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (text verse 3). I did. Jesus spoke from a completely different angle from what Nicodemus thought or expected. The word 'be born again' is expressed as 'be born from above' or 'be born again from the top'. The meaning of this word is to be born again 'from above' spatially, that is, from God, and 'again' in time. Rebirth does not depend on human effort.
He says that his merits in obeying the law are not washing away his sins and becoming righteous and entering the kingdom of God. It is said that high standards of morality and ethics do not earn God's approval. The kingdom of God means salvation, and only those who have been saved become the people of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is not based on human efforts, but through the merits of a mediator. We go to the righteousness of faith by believing in Jesus, and by the help of the Holy Spirit, we go to faith by His protection, guidance, and blessing.
The kingdom of God is the focus of the Jewish hope. The content of the kingdom of God is not established by the efforts of some people, as Paul said in Romans 14:17, "The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." It reveals that it is established by the sovereignty of God.
To be born again means to be born again when the old man dies, in other words, Nicodemus throws away honor, power, knowledge, position, and the pride of the Pharisees of the law and has faith in Jesus as the Savior. Nicodemus's rationale for being born again was not religious, but only carnal thoughts. In the words 'Nanda', how can a person fly when he is old? He answered foolishly, "Isn't it impossible to go back into the mother's womb and come out?" We cannot believe or know the truth that we are born again before the road of faith is exploding.
4. As a result of the conversation, Jesus taught Nicodemus that we must be born again of water and the Spirit. Interpretation of this water is interpreted as the Holy Spirit or the Bible, which is the truth. People's change cannot be done by people's power. It is only possible through the Holy Spirit. It is possible with the word of truth.
Here, you can think of John the Baptist's water baptism with water and the Holy Spirit and Jesus' baptism with the Holy Spirit together. “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with water” (Matthew 3:11), to be a new person only when you have been washed away from your sins by water baptism and born again through the baptism of the Holy Spirit and a change of conscience and behavior. is.
It is through the baptism of the Holy Spirit that Paul became an apostle (Romans 8:2) “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.” I have set you free from the law of death and death." The law of the Holy Spirit is the baptism of the Holy Spirit that takes away sin and death and gives birth to a new one.
It teaches the mystery of being born again in an easy-to-understand way. It compares it to the wind.
They say they haven't seen the wind, but there is it. Also, the wind does not know where it comes from and where it goes. In this way, those who are born of the Holy Spirit are as mysterious as the existence of the wind. The wind is invisible, but its existence is certain. The power of the Holy Spirit is against those who do not have God and those who eat and drink sin and who are immoral. In John 16:6, “He will come and convict the world of sin, of righteousness, of judgment, and of the world”. Nicodemus came before Jesus and tried to talk only with his faith, knowledge, wisdom, and subjectivity, but Jesus immediately broke his stubbornness and error and repented.
Today, many people say they believe in Jesus, but because they believe in Jesus with faith mixed with the worldly superstitions and their own subjectivity, they cannot fully enter the life of faith and pretend to believe outwardly.
Jesus told Nicodemus, as a teacher in Israel, do you not know this? The conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus is a fundamental matter of life, but Nicodemus thought it was only about the flesh.
Nicodemus had lost all his honor, position, knowledge, and superiority as a teacher of the law, and was reborn and became a humble person. Nicodemus mourned mournfully over the death of Jesus on the cross, and joined with Joseph of Arimathea to bring the body to Pilate, prepare myrrh for burial, and eventually became a holy minister. Nicodemus, who was born again, became a witness for the truth and fulfilled his mission as a true disciple.
A person must truly be born again. It is the life of a truly born-again person when a person who doubts abides in confidence, when disobedience turns into obedience, and hate turns into love. People who pretend to believe are still in their sins, and the anxiety and fear of death remain.
Even now, Jesus tells me to come to me and says that unless you are born again of water and the Spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. When I live with Jesus by faith, I die, and Christ lives in me, and I receive the status, authority, and cause of becoming a child of God. Let's be born again of God's people.