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  Long Island Abundant Life Church 長島豐盛生命教會

John 3:1–15

5/17/2012

 
Click here to read today's passage on Bible Gateway.

The Son of Man Must Be Lifted Up
There are a number of things we could talk about in today's passage, as there are some unusual phrases and things that are a little hard to understand, but I'm going to deal with the final verses of today's reading.  I'm doing so because the interpretation of the last part is quite certain, is key to the passage, and draws again on imagery from the Old Testament that we would miss if we're unfamiliar with the OT (which a lot of people are.

Jesus is referring in verses 14-15 to the events recorded in Numbers 21:4-9:

"4 From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. 5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” 6  Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. 7  And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. 8 And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live." (ESV, emphasis mine)

***As a quick aside, I would like to mention how helpful "cross references" can be.  In many Bibles you will see notes in the margins that include Bible verses that relate thematically to what you are reading about.  A lot of people don't really use them at all, but this is a great example of how helpful they can be.  In my ESV, there is a note in verse 14 that connects this passage to Numbers 21:9.  As we've been talking recently about understanding the relationship of OT and NT, I would encourage you to be on the lookout for cross references.  If there is a reference you don't understand (such as Jacob's Ladder or the bronze serpent) check for a cross reference to the OT and read the original story.  You'll find it to be incredibly helpful in most cases.  Back to today's post.***

From the NIVAC John commentary:
"Jesus then refers to a story from Numbers 21, in which Moses built a serpent of bronze and elevated it among the Israelites so that whoever gazed on it would be healed from the snakes that bit them in the desert. In the same manner, Jesus says, he must be 'lifted up' in order to become the source of eternal life for all who believe." [1]

I think that this event in the Old Testament is a foreshadowing event that points to Jesus as the ultimate picture and fulfillment, as He offers eternal life, not just deliverance from momentary death.  We dealt with this concept when we read about the Transfiguration.  For bonus points, does anyone remember the theological term for this kind of foreshadowing that is fulfilled in Jesus?

[1] Gary M. Burge, NIV Application Commentary: John (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2000), 117.
Andrei
5/17/2012 06:40:48 pm

Wow I completely missed the part about the fiery serpents when I read Numbers some while ago. That's crazy -- reminds me of Charmander from Pokemon.

So exciting to learn about these OT/NT connections and references. Sorry, I totally don't remember the theological term for the foreshadowing. (Sad Eeyore face)

I had a question about verse 8: "The wind[e] blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

The footnote on Biblegateway says that the Greek word for 'spirit' and 'wind' are the same. I was confused though; is he referencing the Holy Spirit? If so, why would it 'blow where it wishes' and why would the person 'not know where it comes from or where it goes'? Wouldn't the person know that it is from God/Jesus if they believe? Seemed like a weird description so I was curious as to what I was missing...

Greg
5/18/2012 04:02:49 am

This word for spirit (πνεῦμα) is used 379 times in the NT. The meanings that it can possibly take are “spirit, breath, wind”, but in the NT 374 of the occurrences of the word take the meaning “spirit”, so this is clearly the main meaning of the word. Beyond that, 89 of the uses are specifically used as “Holy Spirit” – there are certainly more of those uses that refer to the third Person of the Trinity, but it’s hard to specifically categorize because sometimes it just says “the Spirit” and I’m not going to spend the time right now to check each one individually.

In this section He isn’t specifically referenced as the “Holy Spirit”, but context and grammar help out a lot. We know that we can set apart “wind” from Spirit because it is connected to the verb “blows” (which is another variant of the word itself). We never see the Spirit “blowing” anywhere in the NT and it doesn’t make a lot of sense, but it DOES make sense for the wind to blow. So we have “the wind blows” and we can infer the second meaning logically as well. We wouldn’t say “so it is with those born of the wind (or breath)”. That doesn’t even make sense. “Spirit” here makes the most grammatical and logical sense. So that takes care of the grammar aspect of your question: we can be pretty certain that this is referring to the Holy Spirit.

Now for the “meaning” part of your question: What is Jesus actually saying?

“In other words, Jesus is here pointing to the dawning of a new eschatological era. John the Baptist has inaugurated this era, and submission to his message—his water baptism, which is the precursor for Christian baptism—is expected. Jesus now is the baptizer “in Spirit” (1:33), who will complete the dawning of this time. But above all, Nicodemus must understand that this era will be an era when the Spirit of God moves among humanity. Jesus compares this with the “wind,” another Greek wordplay, since pneuma can mean either “spirit” or “wind” (3:8). Its origin and movements are mysterious, and they cannot be contained by the human religious systems Jesus has already challenged.” (NIVAC John, 116)

Basically what Jesus is saying is that the ways of the Spirit are hard to understand and categorize into a “religious system”. Nicodemus wants to know what He needs to “do” to be in the kingdom, and the confusing answer is “be born again”. Jesus is speaking in ways that don’t categorize easily into a system of do’s, don’ts, and traditions, and this confuses Nicodemus. Jesus then uses a sweet wordplay to basically say “Yeah – it’s hard to understand. You can’t categorize the Spirit and His working because those things are intangible.”

I think this is easier for us to understand looking back on it, but for Nicodemus it would’ve been confusing. The coming of the Spirit in Acts couldn’t have been foreseen. He’s not saying that people won’t know it comes from God, but that the working of the Spirit is mysterious, much like the moving of the wind (realizing of course that Nicodemus had no access to the weather date that we have today which makes the moving of the wind less mysterious). I hope that helps!

Also, I’ll be answering my “pop quiz” in the next post, along with a surprise!


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