Here we see a recorded conversation between two rabbis (teachers): Nicodemus and Jesus. One rabbi came in with flattery which disguised his ignorance about the most important spiritual truths. The other Rabbi shows us how critical it is for all teachers & students to know the regeneration precedes faith if one is to be saved at all & born from above.

Man’s attempt to reverse the curse of sin and recreate paradise failed, but God did not leave man hopeless. Thus God chose Abram - a nomad with no heir who practiced idolatry in Babylon - and promised to bless the nations through him. God would indeed reverse the curse of sin for all nations through Abram’s descendant, Jesus Christ.

This first temple-cleansing by Jesus teaches us much about the rights of the Son, the purpose of the Passover & temple & sacrificial system, ways we reveal our impurity, and the consuming zeal Jesus has for this house & body.

Humanity longs to return to the paradise God banished us from, so we often attempt to build our own paradise on Earth. But so long as sin exists, any paradise we build cannot last - such was the case of Noah after the Flood and of the founding of Babylon. Only the paradise God is building will last forever, and we see Him beginning to build it even in the immediate aftermath of the Flood.

Given the prominence of the several versions of The Great Commission along with the heavy Biblical emphasis on sowing & reaping (spiritually understood), Christians & our churches must push against the world’s resistance and our own excuses so we are investing well in the practical sharing of Christ with many, especially those who are not walking with Him today.

The Flood was an outpouring of God’s wrath on the corrupted world, yet it was also a display of His grace. Noah and his family deserved to die like everyone else, yet God showed grace to preserve them from His wrath through the Flood, and preserve them from His wrath after the Flood by establishing His covenant with Noah and his descendants.

John selected seven of what must have been thousands of Jesus’ signs, to highlight His manifold care & compassion, His power over all that could hinder us, and His obvious divinity.

As man began to increase on earth after the Fall, there arose a distinction between those who identified themselves with the world and were corrupted, and those who found favor with God and were defined by their calling upon Him. We must therefore be heralds of righteousness in this sinful world just as Noah was.

Jesus began to glorify Himself & His Father through signs, at a wedding. This teaches us much about Jesus, human life, priorities, and the wondrous grace of God.

John the Baptist proved to be a faithful and truthful “witness” about Jesus by proclaiming and portraying that Jesus is God the Son, the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. This witness would cost John much, but he was willing to fulfill the assignment. What does your life “witness” or testify most clearly? Ask those who love you most.

What happened to Paradise? Because of Man’s sin, the whole Creation has fallen into sin. But what fell by sin God restores through grace. In Genesis 3, we see the beginning of both.

John brings clarity now, that this Word who is God & with God is Jesus Christ. Already the beloved disciple is teaching us that Jesus is God and truly man, God with us, the fullest expression of God’s glory, & the perfect meeting place for grace & truth.

At the outset of the grand gospel drama, we are introduced to five characters: John the author, John the washer, the world which is largely lost & dark, God’s own people who are in this world, and the Light / Life who is either worshiped or rejected.

The Word of God is the door that transforms us into the image of God by faith. This is the attitude and approach we must have as we examine Scripture, particularly as we prepare to study the narrative God lays out in the book of Genesis.

John chose to open his Gospel with the same two words that open Genesis (in Greek), and he thrice highlighted Jesus as “the Logos,” a startling claim among Greeks. John also displayed Jesus as eternal, personal, relational, and the sustaining Power under all things.

In line with John’s own statement of purpose for his Gospel, we will rejoice to see Jesus as THE Christ (Messiah), THE Son of God (God the Son), that by believing in Jesus as THE Provision for all we need, we will enjoy real life in His name. Enjoy the journey!

The condition of sinners is not merely a spiritual sickness, as that would imply we could heal ourselves of this condition. Rather, sinners find themselves dead in their sins - a condition that requires divine intervention to be healed from. And God, because of His great mercy, has provided that divine intervention for us in the person of Jesus Christ so that we might live and have our identity in Him.

The Psalms describe the Church’s shared experience across the old and new covenants, and nowhere is this more evident than in Psalm 118. The same words that Israel sung as they remembered their deliverance from slavery in Egypt, we can sing as we remember our deliverance from slavery to sin.

This lone psalm/prayer of Moses is also a wilderness song, with sad realities of an Ecclesiastes-type life. Can there be comfort, purpose, and hope out there in the wild places?

This “refugee Psalm” cries out to God with a healthy desperation we’d be wise to emulate. May God give US the life & breath to cry up to Him, that His face may shine on us again, and we will be saved.