John, Chapter 3

John 3

Wow! There is so much to the third chapter of John. This chapter could cover several day's devotions, but we are only doing one -- for now.

In summary --

This is the story of one of the Jewish leaders coming to Jesus in secret to question him. Jesus tells him that we cannot even see heaven unless our spirit becomes alive. We have to be spiritually born to enter heaven. We must believe in Jesus as God (or the Son of God) in order to have eternal life.
I could stop and write a lot about this.
Jesus explains to this teacher what he must do to have eternal life and the teacher is having a difficult time understanding. He basically says, "Wait! How can this be?"
The teacher of Israel is the one asking questions.
That could be the greatest lesson of the chapter -- Don't be afraid to ask questions about salvation!

These first few verses are certainly the main takeaway from this chapter, but there are plenty of other good lessons as well. I'll cover a couple of them in the rest of this post.

My favorite verse --

John 3:16 is probably the most well known verse of the Bible, but I think my favorites are the two verses that follow.

17 God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, ...

If God didn't send Jesus into the world to condemn the world, then why do we often find those that claim to follow Jesus condemning others? That's not our job!
We haven't been tasked with condemning others, nor have we been tasked with saving others. Jesus simply tells us to love others.

Something to think about --

Towards the end of the chapter Jesus and his disciples go into the countryside and are baptizing new followers. John (the Baptist) is also baptizing in the area and some come to him and say that more people are going to Jesus than to him, (Students, remember Sunday's lesson? Comparison kills compassion.)
But John handles it well. He basically says, "It's not about me. It's never been about me. I told you that I am not the Christ. From now on, it's all about Jesus. As he becomes more, I will become less."

It is hard to set our own desires aside and to always put Jesus first. Let's face it -- we want to have our way. It is unrealistic to expect that we make the sudden and drastic change of completely surrendering our will over to God. But it is not unrealistic to gradually let Jesus become more as we become less.

What is one way that you can be more like Jesus and less like yourself -- today?
One thought. One action. One word of encouragement or love. One way that Jesus becomes more and you become less.

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