JOHN 3:1 – 36
Bible Study Notes Rev. Betsy Perkins
Jesus’ Begins Teaching
o What are some things about the Christian faith that you find difficult to understand?
o What are some of God’s promises that you struggle to believe?
Jesus Teaches Nicodemus (3:1-21):
Joe Boyd, Bible Experiment – Gospel of John (RightNowMedia), 43:00-47:35
o What purpose does birth serve?
o What time of day does Nicodemus come to Jesus? What does it tell us about him, literally and symbolically? Why is he coming to Jesus?
o What birth is Nicodemus speaking about? What birth is Jesus speaking about?
o What value would Nicodemus have seen in his first birth into a family of religious prestige and religious knowledge within God’s “chosen people”? What benefit is to him ultimately?
o What does it mean to be born “of water”? What does it mean to be born “of Spirit”?
The two are closely joined. Nobody in the early church supposed that spirit-baptism mattered so much that you could do without water-baptism. From time to time the problem arose of people assuming that as long as you had water-baptism you didn’t need to worry about the new spiritual life (1 Cor.10). But the point in this passage is that this double-sided new birth, which brings you into the visible community of Jesus’ followers (water-baptism) and gives you the new life of the Spirit welling up like a spring of water inside you (Spirit-baptism), was now required for membership in God’s Kingdom. Indeed, (as Jesus says in verse 3) without it you can’t even see God’s Kingdom. You can’t glimpse it, let alone get into it. N.T. Wright
o How does Jesus’ teaching to Nicodemus further explain what John said in 1:12-13?
o Verses 14-15 refer to a story about Moses and Israel in Numbers 21:4-9. What does light does that story shed on God’s purpose in Jesus?
o List as many things as you can about what we learn from the single verse, John 3:16.
o Using verses 16-21, fill in the chart below with the contrasts between believers and unbelievers.
Verse BELIEVERS UNBELIEVERS
3:16 Believe in… Do not believe in…
3:16
3:17-18
3:19-20
3:20-21
o How does Nicodemus respond to Jesus’ teaching? How will you respond?
But the point of the whole story is that you don’t have to be condemned. You don’t have to let the snake kill you. God’s action in the crucifixion of Jesus has planted a sign in the middle of history. And the sign says: believe, and live. N.T. Wright
John Continues to be a Witness to Jesus (3:22-36):
o Who is doing the baptizing in 3:22? (See John 4:2)
o What is it about Jesus that is bothering the disciples of John the Baptist?
o Have you ever attended a wedding at which you wished you could have been the bride/groom? What made you envious of the actual bride/groom?
o Does John share their concern? How does John describe his feelings about Jesus?
o What would it mean for us if “He must become greater; I must become less”?
John the evangelist also intends us to see, not for the last time in the gospel, the way in which different characters in the story of Jesus have to learn, as C.S. Lewis once put it, to play great parts without pride and small parts without shame. At the very end of the gospel (21:20-23), Peter is reminded that what counts is not comparing yourself with other people and seeing whether your status is higher or lower than theirs, but simply following Jesus. N.T. Wright
o Who is the one “who comes from above”? Who is the one “who is from the earth”? Are there voices “from the earth” today that distract you from the truths of God?
o Reread verses 31-36 more slowly. What are the truths that stand out to you?
In light of this passage and our discussion, what one truth about God and about yourself stand out as something to “take to heart” this week?
Are there steps you will take, by God’s grace, to more fully apply it to your life?
Resources: NIV Zondervan Study Bible, 2015
N.T. Wright, John for Everyone, 2002
Max Lucado, Life Lessons from John, 2018
Joe Boyd, Bible Experiment – Gospel of John (RightNowMedia), 2014
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