John 3:24-26 - Who's the best baptiser?

Verse 24 at first glance appears superfluous, but it actually shows an awareness of what Mark (Mk 1:14) had written, and John is making clear that these events took place before the imprisonment of John the Baptist.

We now come to the handing over of the baton from John to Jesus. John’s role is almost complete, and Jesus’ role is about to become much more prominent. When God’s plans move to a new phase there is always some dispute and discontent, for people become comfortable with the situation they are in, and fear change. So it was here. The “argument” is actually a debate, and it may be that John’s disciples started the debate. Jesus’ disciples were not over careful about things like ceremonial washings, and perhaps John’s disciples, feeling threatened, wanted to use this to prove that they were better than Jesus’ disciples. It is a common human tactic to pick some irrelevancy and seek to blow it up into a major issue.

John’s disciples then went to John himself, seeking to enlist his support. They reported that Jesus was baptizing and attracting larger crowds than John. “Someone has opened a new church and everyone is going there!” Notice that they said “the one you testified about”. Evidently they had heard the words, but had not understood a thing. This is another common human trait. You can preach or teach a message and then wonder if anyone heard a word you said, or they seem to have been listening to a completely different sermon. People will filter whatever is said.

John 3:22,23 - Baptism

3:22

Jesus then left Jerusalem and went out into the Judean countryside. There He baptised people. John 4:2 makes it clear that it was actually His disciples who did the baptising. Now this is very interesting. We don’t often think of Jesus baptising, but this shows the continuity with the ministry of John the Baptist. Indeed this whole section is demonstrating how John and Jesus were continuous, and how John the Baptist’s ministry naturally (or supernaturally) led into Jesus’ ministry and was superseded by it.

This also highlights the importance of repentance, for John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance (Acts 19:4). We shouldn’t need any reminding of the importance of repentance, but so many people have a distorted, unbiblical and silly idea of who Jesus is and what He is about. We see the same continuity in Matthew. John preached repentance (Matt 3:2), then Jesus preached repentance (Matt 4:17). Peter continued this “tradition” in Acts 2:38. Repentance is a fundamental component of the gospel.

3:23

At the same time John was continuing his ministry of baptism, this time at Aenon. We are not certain of the precise location, but it was possibly about eight miles south of Scythopolis, west of the Jordan. Aenon means spring, which ties in with there being lots of water available. People were still coming to John to be baptised.

Part of the reason he chose Aenon was because there was lots of water about. John baptised people by full immersion. Now, of course there is much disagreement between churches about when and how one should be baptised. From the Bible it seems clear that it was believers who were baptised, and full immersion seems to have been the most common method. Now, while I hold to believer’s baptism, we must not reject Christians who hold to infant baptism, and I think it would be incredibly silly to reject people on the basis of the method of baptism.

Baptism really is an awkward subject. It is important, these two verse make that clear, as do the words of Jesus in the great commission, and the practise of the New Testament church. So we have to face up to it. However, it is not something over which we should divide.

John 3:20,21 - Light and dark

3:20

This verse describes something central to the human condition. We are loathe to come into the light, for if we do then our deeds will be exposed. Sin is utterly pernicious. It leads us down wrong paths with false promises, then takes over our lives. It starts to affect all of our being, and so we begin to be afraid of God. We no longer want the truth, but would rather continue in our tissue of lies. Sin produces complete enmity between man and God.

Again there is a key lesson here on the “how a God of love can send people to hell” so-called argument. At the last day everyone will be in the light, there will be no more hiding. When that happens the true nature of sin, the true nature of my sin and your sin will be made painfully evident. And on that day it will be seen by all that God’s judgement is completely just and right.

3:21

If, instead, we live by the truth then we will come into the light. To listen to Jesus, to believe in Him is to live by the truth.Then we want everything about us, our actions, our thoughts and our attitudes to be exposed to the light of the Lord. We want Him to correct and refine us where we need it. The Christians that John was writing for were a fairly small band. Likewise today to be a Christian in the West is to be part of a minority. We are mocked and scorned by much of society, but is us who are living in the sight of God.

John 3:18,19 - the verdict

3:18

The key to escaping condemnation is belief in Jesus. Now the world thinks this is just a momentary belief, or a mere intellectual assent, but this is not so. It means trusting in Jesus, relying on Him.

The world also says it is unfair for God to send people to hell for not believing in Jesus, but this is not true. If a person does not believe he is condemned already. The whole human race is heading for hell because of what we have done, Jesus is the only escape route.

Note also that it says believe in the Name of God’s only son. The Name signifies the character of the person. Belief means believing in who Jesus really is.

3:19

This verse sums up the verdict. Light came into the world, but people preferred the darkness. Jesus shows up our sinfulness. The purity of Jesus includes above all else complete and unquestioning commitment to the Father. Just think how atheists object to having to obey God. They do not want to believe in Jesus. In fact all of us, even long standing Christians, need to take this carefully to heart. We are supposed to completely obey Jesus, we need to realise how much our human nature objects to doing this. Our old nature would rather live in the dark, then our sinfulness can remain hidden, or so we think.

John 3:16,17 - For God so loved the world

3:16

Verse 15 is usually taken as the ending of Jesus’ words with Nicodemus, and the following verses are commentary on that, but there are some who take the succeeding words as being part of the conversation as well.

This is possibly the most famous verse in John’s gospel. “For God so loved the world” is generally taken to mean the degree or extent of God’s love. However, the Greek actually implies that it means the manner of God’s love. Ie referring back to verses 14 and 15 and the lifting up of the snake. In one sense it doesn’t matter that much, as God being prepared to send His own Son does demonstrate the extent of God’s love, and the reason it can be said that God’s love is so great is that He was sending His own Son to die on the cross in order to save us.

Some of the older versions have “only begotten son”, but “one and only son” is a more accurate translation. The latter part of verse 16 is exactly parallel to the incident in Numbers. Without Christ all will perish, but if we look to Him, if we believe in Him, we will be saved. Instead of perishing we will have eternal life.

3:17

In many ways this is a tragic verse, or rather it highlights the tragedy of much of the world’s response to Jesus. The Pharisees and other religious leaders sought to kill Jesus because they feared condemnation. They knew that His words and actions showed that they were acting against God in their hypocrisy. They thought Jesus had come to condemn them, so they wanted to get rid of Him. The truth is that Jesus came to save them. He came to highlight their sin so that they could repent and be saved. If only they knew.

The same is true today. Listen to the arguments of atheists and sceptics. The speak as though God and Jesus have come to condemn them, to bring judgement. The truth is that Jesus has come to save us from judgement, but in order to receive that salvation we need to admit our sin, and this is precisely what so many refuse to do.

John 3:13-15 - Lifted up

3:13

Sometimes people speak about Jesus coming to realise who He was and what His mission was. Such talk is just nonsense and totally without Biblical foundation. Jesus knew exactly who He was and what His mission was. He is the One who came from heaven, and Jesus knew this full well. God did not chose a man and chose to dwell in Him, God came as a man. This is the incarnation.

Moreover, Jesus is the only one who has come from heaven, and no one has gone into heaven. This is an implicit rejection of claims for anyone to have gone into heaven. Today we sometimes hear of near-death experiences and claims about what people claim to have seen. We do well to ignore all such talk, they are mere speculations. The only one who can tell us about heaven is Jesus Himself.

3:14,15

Jesus then refers back to the time in the desert when the Israelites complained about having been brought out into the desert. A plague was sent among them. The people then repented, admitted their sin, and went to Moses. Moses prayed for them and God told him to make a bronze snake, and whoever looked up to it would be saved (Num 21:4-9).

There are a number of parallels here. First the people had sinned. Israel needed to realise she was a sinful nation. Notice that the object which saved them in the desert was a model of the thing that was killing them. In the same way sin is killing us, Jesus was made sin (2 Cor 5:21), our sin was laid upon Him. And we need to look to Jesus in order to be healed. This was what the Pharisees needed to do, it was what all Israel needed (and needs) to do, and it is what all of us need to do.

So everyone who believes in Christ will have eternal life in him. It is in Christ alone that we find eternal life. Eternal life literally means life of the age to come. It is more than just everlasting, it is the nature of that life as well. It is a life lived in perfect communion with God, in perfect trust, love and obedience to Him.

John 3:11,12 - Heaven and earth

3:11

Here we get another of the “very truly”s. Jesus confirms beyond doubt that He is speaking the truth. In this sentence He uses the plural we. So who is this we? It could be Jesus and the disciples, but this seems unlikely as the disciples don’t seem to have been involved in much preaching at this stage. It seems best to take it as being Jesus and the Father. There is an emphasis throughout John that Jesus and the Father are one, and that He speaks on God’s behalf.

So let’s look a little more at what Jesus actually says here. We speak of what we know and what we have seen. Jesus speaks with knowledge. When men speak about religion, especially atheists, they are usually speaking out of ignorance. They are so wise on how the world was created, but they weren’t there. They are so wise on judgement and life after death, but they know nothing about these things.

The wisest thing we can do is to listen to the words of Jesus. Indeed this is what the Father told us to do (Matt 17:5).

3:12

Jesus had spoken about how things work on earth. This possibly includes what happened at the temple, and the need to be born again, and how the Spirit works here on earth. Jesus had spoken about these things and the Pharisees didn’t understand a word of it. So if Jesus spoke about how things work in heaven Nicodemus would have even less of a clue.

Notice that Jesus doesn’t actually say understand, but believe. Believe means to be persuaded of and place confidence in. So when Jesus speaks the goal is that we believe His words. A verse or two ago He tells us that the Spirit blows wherever He pleases. In our lives we want to work out what God is going to do, we want to know when He will do it, and how He will do it. But that is not the way that God works. We should live by trusting in Him. Being confident that He will “show up” at the right time and in the right way without having to know ahead of time when and how this will be.

John 3:9,10 - You should know this!

Nicodemus is surprised and cannot understand how this can be. Jesus, in turn, is surprised that Nicodemus does not understand. The you here is singular again. Nicodemus was Israel’s teacher. This doesn’t mean he was the only teacher, but people looked up to him expecting to learn, and he didn’t know even the most fundamental things about the human condition and our need of God. Sadly there are many ministers and pastors of whom the same could be said.

Was it reasonable of Jesus to expect him to know this simple truth? The answer is yes. Several times in the Old Testament it speaks of our need of the Holy Spirit and renewing (Is 44:3, 59:21; Ezek11:19,20, 36:26,27; Joel 2:28,29; Ps 51:10).

The truth is very plain in the Bible yet we so easily miss it. When I think of others there are times when I wonder “how can you not see that?”. Yet I also have no doubt that there are many areas in my own life where I have blind spots. The problem is that because they are blind spots I don’t know what they are! That is why we must keep on studying the Bible, and with a humble attitude (Is 66:2) for we all need to learn from Him.

John 3:7,8 - the wind blows

3:7

The “you” in verse 7 is plural. What Jesus says here is relevant to all, in particular it was something the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin desperately needed to get hold of. But, of course, they never did.

So why does Jesus say they should not be surprised? The Jews had relied on the Law to be righteous, to live lives pleasing to God, and they had about a thousand years or so of failure for their efforts. Time and time again they failed God and suffered judgement. It should have been blindingly obvious to them that they needed something else. Indeed it should be blindingly obvious to the whole human race that we cannot by our own efforts get life. No political system manages to bring about utopia, no way of life solves all our problems.

3:8

The Holy Spirit is God and He is beyond human control. This should be a warning to those of us in Charismatic circles who sometimes seem to think we can control the Holy Spirit. He does what He will. Have you noticed in life that you cannot “conjure up” God? Yet there are times when we become aware of His presence, or His action in our lives in a most amazing way. If we try to live life on the basis of being in control we will be disappointed and frustrated. It is only be living our lives by trusting God, in relationship with Him, that we will find true peace.

A sermon on living in an increasingly anti-Christian environment.

A sermon on living in an increasingly anti-Christian environment.
The stone the builders rejected

John 3:5,6 - Water, blood, flesh and Spirit

3:5

Again Jesus uses the phrase “Very truly I say to you”. In verse 3 He had said no one can see the kingdom of God, now He says no one can enter the kingdom. The you here is still singular, so Jesus is still talking directly to Nicodemus. This time He adds that we need to be born of water and the spirit. There have been numerous suggestions as to what water and the spirit mean. These include:

1. Water is just another means of saying we need to be born of the spirit. This seems unlikely as there is little point in saying the same thing twice, even though water is often used when talking about the Spirit.
2. Water refers to Christian baptism. This also seems unlikely as Christian baptism hadn’t been instituted at this point.
3. Water refers to natural birth. This is possible, as in the next verse Jesus talks about natural birth.
4. Water refers to John’s baptism. This seems the most likely to me (or, let’s be honest, it is the one I like best). John the Baptist was well known to people. In order to receive the kingdom one needs to repent and to be born again by the Spirit.

3:6

This verse sheds light on the inadequacy of the materialist approach. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. We are more than material beings. Any attempt to live live, or explain life, in purely material terms is doomed to failure. If one takes a purely material approach then there is no explanation of consciousness, intelligence, meaning, beauty etc. In fact the statement that materialism explains everything itself becomes meaningless, a victim of its own flawed philosophy.

The universe does not just happen to be here, it did not pop out of nothing, and nor did we. Rather the universe and ourselves were created by the Lord. And we were created in the image of God and are meant to be both material and spiritual beings. In fact at this point I might change my mind on preferring option 4 in the comments on the previous verse! If we deny the spirit side we are hopelessly wrong, but we are equally wrong if we ignore the material side. God created us as flesh and blood, and then breathed His life into us (Gen 2:7). So in order to see the kingdom we need to be born naturally and to be born spiritually.

Moreover, the flesh cannot give birth to spirit. We must use our human abilities, but if we rely on them alone we will get nowhere, we will never understand spiritual things. We need to be born of God.

John 3:3,4 - Born again

3:3

The you here is singular, Jesus is addressing Nicodemus directly. It is important that we do belong to groups, it is part of our God given human nature and to be a lone Christian is a contradiction in terms. But we can also hide behind groups when we need to have a direct personal encounter with the Lord, which is what Nicodemus needed here. The ”very truly” stresses the importance of what Jesus is saying.

Seeing the kingdom of God means knowing God, having more than some theoretical knowledge. And in order to be able to see it we need to be born again. The phrase “born again” can also mean “born from above”. This latter meaning would tie in nicely with what Nicodemus said about Jesus coming from God, ie from above.

We cannot see the kingdom of God by mere human knowledge or wisdom, our own efforts are not able to get us there. It is only God who can enable us to see.

3:4

Nicodemus clearly didn’t catch the significance of Jesus saying we needed to be born again or born from above. He assumed Jesus was talking about physically being born again. He decided to take it completely literally. Now there is a lesson for us here. Sometimes people talk as if unless we take all God’s words literally then we are not being faithful to the text. This is clearly nonsense. We need to apply an ounce of common sense when interpreting God’s words.

Then there is the question of why did Nicodemus take it literally? Was he just being obtuse? Or is it that he had no conception at all of what Jesus was talking about?

John 3:1,2 - Nicodemus

3:1

Nicodemus was both a Pharisee and a member of the ruling council, the Sanhedrin. Most times when Pharisees and the Sanhedrin are mentioned it is in a negative context, this is one of the exceptions.

So Nicodemus was a privileged and influential man. So why is he coming to see Jesus? We should also be aware that because a particular group of people or organisation has a certain viewpoint, it does not mean that all people in that group have the same standpoint.

3:2

Nicodemus had come at night. Now in John’s gospel night normally has bad connotations, night being a time when one cannot see properly. Nicodemus had probably come at night because he did not want the rest of the Pharisees and Sanhedrin to know what he was doing.

We also see that the public face of the Pharisees was not revealing everything that they thought. The opposition and suspicion of Jesus was not the whole story. Nicodemus refers to Jesus as a Rabbi, recognising His teaching role. Notice that Nicodemus says we know. It was not a peculiarity of Nicodemus to realise that there was something special about Jesus. As well as knowing He was a teacher, they also knew He was from God. Now remember all the opposition that Jesus received, leading ultimately to the cross. The Pharisees could not say that they were acting out of complete ignorance, they knew there was something special about Jesus, and they could have chosen to seek to learn from Him if they had wanted to. Instead they chose to oppose Him. In the same way just because atheists make bold and proud statements, on the last day it will be shown that they were without excuse, despite all their protestations.

It was the signs that Jesus did that convinced them He was special. The miracles are important, for they show who Jesus is.

John 2:22-25 - Not needing man's testimony

v22

It was only after Jesus had been raised that the disciples believed and started to understand the resurrection. At that time they remembered the words that Jesus had said, as here, and truly understood the Old Testament.

v23

The “now while He was in Jerusalem” implies that Jesus did many other things while He was in Jerusalem. We need always to remember that in the gospels we are reading condensed accounts of what Jesus did and said. This is part of the reason why there are so-called discrepancies between gospel accounts, often times they are merely reporting different aspects of a particular incident. Here we read that Jesus did various signs, presumably these were miraculous, probably healings or casting out of demons. Because of this many “believed in His name”. This brings us to one of the issues in John’s gospel. We will see in the next two verses that this faith was far from perfect, something that we see elsewhere in John’s gospel.

24,25

In the Greek there is a play on words here. To capture this it would be better to translate the key parts of v23 and 24 as “many trusted in Jesus, but Jesus would not entrust Himself to them”. Some see this as an indication that their faith was not really authentic. However, this is not necessarily the case. No matter how deep our faith is in Jesus He will never entrust Himself to us. There is still sin in us, there is still much in our personality and character that needs to be undone and put right.

Jesus is God and does not need to put His trust in anyone, nor does He need the testimony of anyone. If I want to be considered suitable for some job or ministry I will need the testimony of others as a vital part in proving my suitability. Jesus needed no such validation. We should also bear this in mind when the world gives its opinion on Christ and who He is. These opinions are usually wrong and usually worthless.

Of course, this does not mean that we should not testify to Jesus, but we are testifying to the truth, we are not proving the truth.

John 2:15-21 - Destroy this temple?

2:15-17

Jesus reacted with anger. Our picture of “gentle Jesus meek and mild” is quite frankly a load of rubbish. He reacted angrily to His Father's house not be allowed to serve its proper purpose. Jesus made a whip and drove the moneychangers out and overturned the tables.

The Lord’s temple is to be a place of prayer and devotion to the Lord. Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, and we need to remember the prime purpose of our lives, service to God.

The quote in v17 is from Psalm 69:9.

2:18

The religious leaders demanded a sign from Jesus on several occasions. They did this because they were looking for the authority that Jesus had. Jesus was acting in a most unusual way. No normal person would dream of doing what He had just done in the temple.

2:19-21

Jesus’ reply was surprising. “Destroy this temple and I will raise it in three days”. The Jews thought He was talking about the physical temple, when in fact it was His own body He was talking about. As an aside, this demonstrates that the resurrection was not in the least expected. The notion that people were gullible and would easily have expected a resurrection is totally without foundation. No one expected a man to die and be raised from the dead, not the disciples and not the Jewish leaders.

The temple building had taken some forty six years to build, having started in 20 BC. In fact it was not completed until 64 AD, and, of course, was then going to be shortly destroyed.

John 2:13,14 - A good clear out

2:13

The Passover was one of the festivals that the Jews celebrated, remembering the escape from Egypt when the angel of death “passed over” them (Exodus 12). They had to remember the haste with which they ate. It is, of course, most significant that it was the blood of the lamb that protected them from the angel of death, the judgement that came upon the land of Egypt. Jesus is our passover lamb.

The synoptic gospels record a clearing of the temple (Matt 21:12,13; Mark 11:15-17; Luke 19:45,46). Most assume that John is recording the same incident and has placed at an early stage in Jesus’ ministry for some reason. The simpler, and more likely explanation, seems to me to be that there were two clearings. There are differences in the accounts, and there seems to be no reason why Jesus wouldn’t have done this twice. The people clearly weren’t into repentance in a big way, so it is no surprise that they had reverted back to their old ways.

2:14

People came from far and wide to the temple in Jerusalem. They needed animals to sacrifice and it clearly wasn’t practical for them to bring them from their homes, so they needed to buy them at Jerusalem.

The animals were sold in the outer court. Now this was the one place where the Gentiles were allowed to pray, so this activity hindered Gentiles from praying. It had always been God’s plan that salvation for Israel would spread to the whole world (Gen 12:3), and the activity of the merchants was stopping Gentiles from praying. Israel never got to grips with the idea of God’s salvation going to all nations.

Furthermore, money needed to be changed, and it is a fair bet that they took a significant mark-up.

We need to be careful that we do not negate some part of God’s plan for pragmatic reasons.

John 2:11,12 - Signs

John has seven miracle signs in his gospel. These signs revealed His glory. So how did this sign reveal His glory? It demonstrates His power over nature, His ability to deal with “ordinary” situations, and His ability to transform things.

Weddings and marriage are essential throughout the Bible. Right at the beginning in Genesis God institutes marriage between a man and a woman. Throughout the Old and New Testaments marriage is used as an analogy for the relationship between God and His people. And right at the end in Revelation the church is portrayed as the bride of Christ. It is no wonder that there are constant attacks upon the institution of marriage.

Then we read that His disciples believed in Him. A miracle is not for entertainment, but for a purpose. Part of the purpose is addressing the need that it deals with, the other part is encouraging faith in those who see. The miracle reveals something about the nature of God, and we should believe in Him. We do well to consider the things that God has done in our lives and to meditate upon what it reveals about Him.

Then Jesus went to Capernaum with his mother, brothers and disciples.

John 2:6-10 - Water into wine

2:6,7

The jars were large, holding about thirty gallons of water. The water was used for ceremonial washing, to enable a Jew to wash himself if he became ceremonially unclean during the course of the day. One thing we need to be quite clear about is that the jars contained water at the outset, and contained wine at the end. There have been various attempts to explain away the miracle, none of them hold water (nor wine for that matter!).

It seems that these jars were empty and then water was added to them. Why was water added? Because that was all they had. When God does a miracle He will often require us to do something that on its own is not going to make an ounce of difference. The difference comes when God does His bit. This is usually how God works. He involves us, we would like Him just to do the whole thing, but that is not His way.

As Mary instructed, we need to do whatever Jesus tells us to do, that is when we will start to see the miracles in our own lives.

2:8-10

Jesus has just told them to fill the pitchers with water and now tells them to take the liquid to the master of the banquet. At no point as he given any hint that the water has turned into wine. The master of the banquet was like a master of ceremonies, in charge of making sure everything ran smoothly. He is amazed at that the best wine has been saved till last.

The common practice was for the best wine to be served first, then the lesser wine later. “too much to drink” is a rather gentle translation, the original implies that people were drunk or inebriated, so they wouldn’t be caring or able to discern the quality of the wine.

John 2:5 - Do whatever He tells you

“Do whatever He tells you”. Now what are we to make of this in the light of the previous verse? Jesus has just told Mary that His hour has not yet come and has essentially rebuked her. Well let’s look first at verse 3. Mary just told Jesus that they had run out of wine, she did not actually ask Him to do anything. Now remember what Matthew and Luke tell us. The angel had told Mary and Joseph that she would have a child by the Holy Spirit (Matt 2:20,21; Luke 1:35) and that suffering would come (Luke 2:34,35). Mary knew that Jesus was special and something amazing was going to happen.

So Mary is submitting to Jesus, recognising that He is infinitely greater than her. She is putting things in His hands and instructing the servants to do the same. Whether He is going to do something about the wine or not He is to be trusted.

Now we know that He did do something about the wine. And of course the wedding at Cana was of little importance on the grand scheme of things. There are things that crop in our lives which certainly do matter to us, but looked at eternally may be trivial. If we put an undue focus on the little things we will just end up nervous wrecks or stressed out. But if we look at the bigger picture, if we focus on God’s plans, then we will find that He takes care of all sorts of minor matters as well. Indeed, this is what Jesus said in Matt 6:33,34.

John 2:1-4 - A wedding

2:1,2

We now come to the first of seven miraculous signs in John, and it is a strange one, turning water into wine at a wedding.

This does add authenticity to the record, for if you were fabricating the gospel you would not have made up an incident like this, especially as the first miraculous sign. Indeed that can be said of much of the Bible.

It is not clear why John puts a reference to the "third day", the third day of what?

Weddings at that time went on for several days with guests coming and going. Also guest lists were far less formal than they are now.

So Jesus, His mother, and His disciples were invited. At this point only a few of Jesus' disciples had been chosen.

2:3,4

The wine had run out. This would be a major social faux pas, but was hardly the sort of thing for the Son of God to be involved in. Yet He was involved. God does get involved in the most trivial aspects of our lives. People sometimes mock praying for a parking space or the like. This attitude is wrong. Now if praying for parking spaces is the limit of our ambitions the there is indeed something far wrong, but God is involved in all aspects of our lives.

Mary mentions the situation to Jesus. The NIV has "Dear woman ...", the Greek has no "dear" and the ESV and other translations simply have "woman". Why does the NIV add dear? It is too soften the harsh sounding "woman". Is it right to do so? No, but it isn't as mistaken as it might be. "Woman" is not actually as harsh as it seems, Jesus used the same words on the cross when he asked John to take care of her (19:26,27), so the NIV change is understandable.

"My time" is actually "my hour". Jesus is referring to the cross. It is only when the kingdom comes that Jesus will bring the true wine (Luke 22:18).

John 1:50,51 - Greater things than these

The “you” here changes from singular to plural in v51, so Jesus starts off by addressing Nathaniel. Nathaniel will see greater things than what initially attracted him to Jesus. This is true of all of us. Whatever the reason we initially came to Christ He has greater things in store for us. The “truly I tell you” is then addressed to all those listening.

“seeing angels of God ascending and descending” is a reference to the vision that Jacob had (Gen 28:12). There has already been an allusion to Jacob in saying that Nathaniel is a man without guile. Jesus is the fulfilment of the promise to Jacob.

The term Son of Man is often used by Jesus of Himself. It is almost certainly a reference to Daniel 7:13,14. This speaks of His kingdom being everlasting and never being destroyed. Isaiah 9:7 has a similar promise about the Messiah.

John 1:48,49 - How do you know me?

1:48

Nathaniel is amazed that Jesus knows anything about him. God knows and understands us better than we do ourselves. What is motivating Nathaniel’s question? Is it curiosity as to how Jesus could know him, or is there some indignation in the question as well?

Jesus replies that He has seen Nathaniel before Philip called him. So perhaps Nathaniel was wondering if Philip had been telling Jesus about him.

A fig tree was associated with prosperity, and it was a place where rabbi’s sat for contemplation of the Law.

1:49

Nathaniel’s response is amazing. Suddenly he declares that Jesus is the Son of God and the king of Israel. Now this is a more amazing declaration than the one Jesus gave about Nathaniel.

Rabbi is used as a term of respect. Son of God is a messianic title, and any doubt over whether it was intended in that sense is removed by the  following bit where he says that Jesus is the king of Israel.

How did Nathaniel know all this? It must have been revealed by the Holy Spirit, for he has received far too little information to deduce this by human reason alone.

John 1:46,47 - Nathaniel

Nathaniel’s immediate reaction is to completely dismiss Philip’s claims. People dismissing someone’s claim that Jesus is the Messiah is nothing new. Nathaniel does not have much of an impression of Nazareth. There are no prophecies linking the Messiah to Nazareth. Now of course Jesus did not really come from Nazareth, He came direct from heaven. When people hear the gospel they will have all sorts of misconceptions.

Philip’s response is not to debate the issue of whether or not anything good can indeed come from Nazareth. There are times to debate a point, there are times to ignore a point, for it will only be a distraction. Instead Philip invites Nathaniel to come and see Jesus for himself. We need to do the same, and here we see why it is vital that Jesus is alive. Otherwise we would be seeking to convert people to a set of ideas, so we would have no choice but to engage them in argument. But it is the living God we are seeking to introduce people to, so we can expect God to reveal Himself as well, as indeed He does here.

When Jesus sees Nathaniel He declares that he is a true Israelite, in whom there is no deceit. Literally it says “no guile”. This is a reference back to Jacob, for whom deceit was a way of life. Note that Jesus does not rebuke Nathaniel for doubting Him, rather He commends him for his straightforwardness.

John 1:45 - We have found the Messiah

Philip was convinced that he had found the Prophet. The prophet is the one Moses spoke of in Deuteronomy 18:15,18. Islam claims that Muhammad is the prophet that Moses was speaking of.

Philip refers to Jesus as coming from Nazareth and being the son of Joseph. Nazareth was the town where Jesus was brought up. In Luke 3:23 it says that Jesus was thought to be the son of Joseph. Clearly the virgin birth was not made a big issue of. Now why is that? I firmly believe that it is true, but it is also true that apart from the accounts in Matthew and Luke nothing much is made of it. Let me make a suggestion. First, the people of the time knew full well that virgin births were not the norm, nor was there any way of proving that it was a virgin birth (would be interesting to see what a DNA test showed!). So there was no point making a big issue of it. Conversely, the resurrection could be proved, or at least shown to be perfectly reasonable. Many people had witnessed the risen Christ, and no one could produce the body. So the claim of the resurrection, while at least as monumental as the virgin birth, could be supported by evidence. So we do not believe Jesus is the Christ because of the virgin birth, whereas the resurrection does show that He is the Christ. We believe the virgin birth because it is recorded in Scripture, and because it is perfectly consistent with Jesus being the Son of God.

Notice also that Philip believed quickly. Evangelism is not all about us, not all about presentation skills etc. It is about us bearing witness and the Holy Spirit working in people’s lives. So something that might seem innocuous to us can have a monumental effect because of the work of the Spirit.