Week 4

Thanks to Tammy, April, April, Julie and Kara for great posts and discussion!  Its so neat to see people really wrestling with issues and looking to God and His word for the answers.  Hope the rest of you are doing well.  If you have any feedback on the study let me know - would be happy to make changes or do something differently if would be helpful.  Sorry for long post today.

Tammy brought up one of the most difficult concepts of the gospel.  I don’t claim to understand this fully but I have thought about it a lot (and a lot more since Tammy’s post)…so, I will pass on some brief thoughts and then make some other general comments about chapter 3. 

·         It is ok for us to not “like” the idea of some going to heaven and some not.  In fact, it should make us sad and cause us to be unsettled.  It saddens God as well.

·         God’s standard for righteousness is perfection and we all fall short of that.  It has to be perfection.  It can’t be based on us at all – only God.  What else could the standard be that would be fair and achievable?  For example, if it were works – how much would be enough?  What about good works with selfish motives?  Which acts would be too “bad?”  Salvation is a gift not a reward. Being born again is accepting this gift. 

·         Works cannot be included in the discussion at all.  No one can rise high enough for salvation and no one can sink too low to be out of reach of salvation.  It is all about God’s grace. 

·         Think of it not that some are excluded….but that ALL are included…not all will be saved but all may be saved.  It is up to us to respond to the degree to which God has been revealed to us.  If we are presented with Christ and then reject Him, we are responsible to that.  Only God knows who has been presented with the gospel and who has rejected it. 

Nicodemus represents those of this day who seek the meaning of life in religion or rules but don’t find it; people who go to church but don’t have a relationship with God which transforms their life.  In spite of Nicodemus’s achievements, his education, his religion, he still had a great need.  He knew a lot about God but he didn’t know God.  The really interesting thing is that Nicodemus “knew” about all there was to know but yet he was really confused when Jesus was talking about being born again.  He was trying to understand this spiritual concept with his human mind.  The fact is that we can’t understand all of God’s ways – in fact, we can’t understand any of God’s ways unless He reveals them to us.  There is a lot of the gospel that is confusing or at times difficult to believe, but you can’t argue with the evidence of the power of the gospel to transform lives.  You have to come to Jesus first – be given His spirit (being born again) and then the understanding will come in a progressive and changing way.  Faith first and true understanding second.  Sometimes I don’t understand a passage of scripture, or sometimes I don’t understand why God hasn’t answered my prayer or sometimes I don’t understand why God has allowed something to happen…..however, I can never deny the presence of God in my life (past and present) and I can never deny the miracles that He does every day.  I for sure can never deny His working in my life and therefore, I trust even when I don’t understand (sometimes quicker than others) and often further understanding is given to me later.  I love to think about the fact that when we become a Christian, we begin our life eternal.  This isn’t something that happens when we die.  I like to think of the emphasis on life…with Christ, we have true life and we get to have that life forever. 

This week we will do John chapter 4.  We see an interaction between Jesus and a Samaritan women. 

Compare and contrast Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman.  What can we learn?

Why is so amazing that Jesus interacted this way with the woman?  What can we learn?

Look at verse 14.  What does it mean to “drink the water?”  What does it mean to “never thirst?”  What does it mean that the water “becomes a spring of water welling up to eternal life?”