Week 6 - John 3:1-21 - Phone a Friend

Desperate to talk with Jesus, Nicodemus asked a friend to arrange a meeting with Jesus at night.  There were no street lamps.  Night meant that he would not be recognized for he was not on official business.  Unlike when multiple representatives investigated the ministry of John the Baptist (John 1:19), he came on his own, but not alone.

That friend was unnamed, but present throughout the entire conversation that evening and recorded it for us (See Ellicott' Commentary)!  Note the use of "we":

John 3:2b
“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

This is a second time when John the Apostle and author leaves his own name out of the narrative.  John, though not a member of the Sanhedrin, was close to the High Priest's family.  He, for example, was how Peter was admitted to the courtyard that awful night when Jesus was arrested (John 18:15–16).  

The conversation that took place was deliberately confused.  Jesus used a Greek word that had a double meaning (anōthen).  The ESV translates it "born again" but adds the second meaning in the margin "born from above".  Repeatedly Nicodemus heard "born again" when Jesus meant "born from above".  The translation is not wrong, the duality is deliberate.  To clarify Jesus says definitively:

John 3:5-6

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Then again, and very deliberately Jesus uses the word pneuma, which also has a double meaning of either spirit or wind.   Jesus masterfully describes God's sovereign choice in election using this duality:

John 3:8

The wind 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.”

Election, though invisible, is observable.   It is God's choice.

Lastly, Jesus explains to the searching Nicodemus the way of salvation and what is to take place.  From the Old Testament He explained that no one, on their own, ascended to Heaven.  Salvation is from God.

John 3:13-15

No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

What comes next is the most often memorized verse in the Bible, whose King James-era use of "so" clouds the meaning.  Today, we use "so" to amplify, as in "He was so tired".  The Greek word  houtō(s), however,  means instead “in this way” (See for examples John 3:8,14).

Like Moses and the bronze serpent, God would love the world by raising up His only begotten Son as free gift of salvation:

John 3:16

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John gave Nicodemus front-row seats to hear for the first time that salvation would be by Christ alone, by grace alone, and by faith alone.

Week 5 - John 2:13-25 - The Foretold Sign

Scholars use the three passovers mentioned in the Gospel of John to measure the length of the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ.  In this week's passage we read:

John 2:13

The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

What He should have found there were families gathered around a very special meal of remembrance.  Instead he found a temple turned into a mall.  While pagan temples of the time had places designed for the sale of offerings, God's design was solely for sacrifice and worship.

John 2:15

And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables.

His response was swift.  Taking some of the left-over cords that once held the animals that had been sacrificed, He drove the remaining animals out of the temple.

While sudden and surprising, His actions were not unexpected.  They were foretold (Malachi 3:1–5).  This is why there is such a measured response from the Jews:

John 2:18-19

So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

He was not arrested, for they recognized Him as the potential fulfillment of the prophecy and wanted a sign to confirm. The sign Jesus offered was what Matthew and Luke recorded Jesus as naming “the  Sign of Jonah” (Matthew 12:38-41; Luke 11:29-32).  This ultimate sign of Jesus' death, three day burial, and His resurrection would be their confirmation.

What makes your blood boil?  Someone taking advantage of a child, or mistreating a woman, or . . . 

Psalm 69:7-9

For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach,

    that dishonor has covered my face.

I have become a stranger to my brothers,

    an alien to my mother's sons.

For zeal for your house has consumed me,

    and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.

This all consuming rage occurred when God did not receive appropriate worship.  

Sunday morning following this lesson, I awoke hearing in my dream the name of our Lord Jesus Christ being misused.  My response in the moment was "May He have all the glory and honor due His Name". 

Week 4 - John 2:1-13 - Sign 1 Wedding at Cana

Weddings take a long time to plan.  When planned, only Jesus was invited.  When it occurred, he had five disciples in tow.  They were welcomed, but when they ran out of wine, Mary comes to Jesus internally understanding that her family was part of the cause.

John 2:2-3

Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. 3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”

Mary's instruction to the servants carried the authority of being a close family friend.  It was not anticipatory of a miracle, for she had never seen Jesus do a miracle.  This was the first sign.  

The miracle itself was quiet, yes it involved the servants but it was not for the master of ceremonies, or the bride and groom, or the parents throwing the party.  None of them knew it happened.  It was also not for Jesus' siblings who were present (See John 2:12) who remained in opposition to Him (John 7:1-7, Especially vs 5).

This miracle was for His disciples.  

John 2:11

This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

One very large jar of water for each of them (Five disciples plus one for Jesus himself) was turned from water to wine, very fine wine. 

We have experienced the very fine wine of the blessings of God in our life.  These blessings have bolstered our faith.  With them we have a great responsibility:

Psalm 78:4
We will not hide them from their children,
    but tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,
    and the wonders that he has done.

Psalm 145:4
One generation shall commend your works to another,
    and shall declare your mighty acts.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7
And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

Joel 1:3
Tell your children of it,
    and let your children tell their children,
    and their children to another generation.

Isaiah 38:19
The living, the living, he thanks you,
    as I do this day;
the father makes known to the children
    your faithfulness.

 

 

 

 

Week 3 - John 1:35-51 - The First Disciples

John the Baptist continued to point away from himself and to Jesus as the Messiah.  Two of his own disciples who were nearby heard him.

John 1:29

The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.

But oddly only one of them was named.

John 1:40

One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.

The second disciple is not named but it is generally understood (by both the early church fathers and current scholarship) that it was John, this Gospel’s author, for he never mentions himself (John 18:15; John 20:2–8).

If true, the prior section comes into sharper focus as the recording of the testimony of John the Baptist, by his disciple at the time, John.  In the narration, he did not assert his own witness out of respect for his Rabbi (Matthew 10:24; Luke 6:40).

Again, John's purpose in his gospel is to prove the divinity of Jesus.  He then records the miraculous exchange between Jesus and Nathanael.  When Jesus identifies as "an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!", Nathanael recoils and asks "How do you know me?".  Jesus' response demonstrates his omnipresence.

John 1:48b

“Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”

Jesus spoke of Nathanael’s private moment, possibly studying scripture before Phillip arrived.  Speculation points to the use of “deceit” in Psalms 32:1-5 so he may have been shocked to hear the passage recited back to him!

In a you-think-that-was-great moment, Jesus tells them not of the miracles to come that of healing or raising the dead, but rather the blessing they will all receive if they follow Him.  

John 1:50-51

Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” 51 And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you,[a] you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

That is the blessing that Jacob received (Genesis 28; Genesis 32) as he was transformed from the trickster (yaʿăqōḇ) in Genesis 25:26 to the tenacious Israel (yiśrā'ēl) in Genesis 32:28.

So, this was not an event they would see, but rather a blessing they would receive, the Emanuel, God-with-us (Matthew 1:23, John 1:14), if they too prevailed.

Week 2 - John 1:19-34 - The Testimony

This passage was not simply a conversation.  These were representatives of the Jewish legal system.  He used the word “confessed” (homologeō), which would be used in court to plead guilty.  The word was repeated for emphasis and clarity. 

John 1:19-21
And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Le-vites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.”  

But he is the one fulfilling the prophecy (Isaiah 40:1-5; Luke 1:17) and was validated by Jesus (Matthew 11:11-15). 

John 1:23

He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”

And it was with that voice that he gave this prophetic testimony:

John 1:29
The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!  

Normally two witnesses are required (Deuteronomy 19:15) to bring any testimony.  John, the Baptist, however, was singularly “a voice” (Isaiah 40:3) in the wilderness.  But, no other testimony was given or was necessary for the word of a prophet must always be tested (Deuteronomy 18:21–22, 1 John 4:1–2).  

So, the Book of John is that test.  John, the Disciple, relates seven signs (sēmeion) in his Gospel as evidence.  Then after giving this evidence, John spends the remainder of his gospel giving a detailed account of the Passion of Christ and concludes with the ultimate evidence, the Resurrection.

Week 1 - John 1:1-18 - The Word

Here John introduces to us to the Second Person of the Trinity, the ever existent Son of God, and His role in creation.  But we need to stop for a moment and grasp the simple thought He is called "the Word" because God created by speaking.

John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

While Einstein famously discovered that all matter is made of light, we knew that already from scripture.

Genesis 1:3
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

But a second thing was necessary, life itself.  This He gave universally.

John 1:4

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

And for anyone and everyone with received that light, a third thing was necessary, that being faith.  

Anyone with faith has the legal "right" to become a child of God.  Anyone who walks down the aisle; Anyone who raises the hand; Anyone who prays the prayer.  Anyone who looked on the Bronze Serpent in the wilderness was healed (Numbers 21:4-9).  For a moment, let go of the doctrine of election and let that sink in, for that is the core of evangelism.

John 1:12-13

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

But, yes God is sovereign and faith is only for the elect, so a fourth thing is necessary and this brings us back to the Word.  During creation our name was spoken and written down in the book of life.

Revelation 13:7-9

Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them.And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. If anyone has an ear, let him hear:

When we visited my Aunt Marie and Uncle Loyal, there was some times a visit to Lollypop Farm.  

It had an extensive petting zoo, where my bearded Father, then sporting a goatee, was once famously photographed with a goat.  That life-sized and award-winning (Uncle Loyal was a great photographer) hung in our house for years!

One of the last times that we visited the farm, long after Uncle Loyal had passed away, and after the divorce had split our family, we ventured into the Humane Society portion of the farm to see the dogs that were up for adoption.

One little black and white ball of fluff caught our eye and my sister and I began the chant of “Can we?  Can we?”.

All it took was one little word from our mother, and Meisje (“little girl” in Dutch) became part of our family and she heard her name for the first time.

Praise be to the LORD God, that the Word, our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus, spoke our name before the foundation of the world!

Norm Ducharme (12/21/1938-10/1/2025)

Norm and I met at the northeast non-com conference of Christian Service Brigade while I was still in college and living near Albany, NY.   This conference was held each year in Briar Cliff Manor, a small town north of New York City at The Kings College.  It was there that young men from across the northeast would come for leadership training and fellowship.  Norm and I talked of how computers could help the work of missions and . . . I was hooked.

That next summer, Norm invited me to intern with The Sudan Interior Mission at their offices in Cedar Grove, NJ.  The first few days, while permanent housing was being arranged, I stayed at the SIM guest house and I met a veteran missionary couple returning from the field for the last time.  I explained to them my plan of interning at SIM that summer and the following year with Wycliff and then choosing my direction. They would have none of that.  They quickly explained that was not how God worked and that He already chosen.

That summer Norm and Ellie took me and another developer Ken Wengzen who was already programming full-time for SIM, under their wings.  And to prevent starvation and malnutrition, we ate dinner every Tuesday night at their house.

On at least one occasion Coit Morrison joined us.  That night Ellie put a wonderful plate of sweet and sour pork in front of us.  But thinking it was beef stew, Coit bit into what looked deceptively looked like a potato and found it was pineapple . . . his face was priceless.  

Chip and Bill, thank-you so much for sharing your parents with us.

I have to mention one more face.  While still in NJ, we took Norm out for lunch on his birthday.  We went to a Japanese Hibachi restaurant.  We had a lot of folks and had a private room.  The maître d’ knew it was Norm’s birthday and positioned himself behind him.  The rest of the staff came in and sang the obligatory “Happy Birthday” in their broken English.  But when they finished . . . the maître d’ reached over Norm’s shoulders, grabbed both his hands, and raised them three times to a thunderous “Banzai, Banzai, Banzai”.  Norm’s face was priceless.  For those that know Japanese, you already know that what they wished for him . . . to live for ten thousand years.  For all us here today, we know it will be so true and more!

Many of us served with Norm at Old First Church in their Brigade program.  I had served for years in Christian Service Brigade, was being mentored by the NE regional director, knew all the handbooks backwards and forwards, and had begun to teach at the non-com conference . . . but Norm did not go by those books.  He went by The Book.

There was one kid in our brigade that just did not fit in and in fact he was quite disruptive.  My attempts at crowd-control were redirected by Norm.  He took me aside to explain that in order to continue to build into that boy's life, love would be more important than discipline.

As I reflect back now, there was always that odd person in the programming office.  I remember thinking to myself, why can't Norm hire anyone normal?  The real odd thing was, I was completely blind to my own condition.  Injured by the loss of my father to divorce and later my mother to diabetes, I was not completely “normal”.  Yes, Norm had hired me to program computers, but I now know he also hired me so he could minister to me.

Back then programmers needed a large desk.  The computers we used were big.  You needed big manuals and lots of them. So, when we got to the new offices here at Choate Circle, with the help of the guys in the woodshop, we were allowed to design and build our own desk.  

When you worked with these big manuals you would frequently come across a page, that had only a single line of text centered across the middle of the page.  It said "This page intentionally left blank".  They wanted you to reassure you that it was not a misprint and you weren't missing something important.

Coit, you and I, and many other young men are pages that Norm intentionally did not leave blank.  

I’ll give just one example, Coit you probably have many as Norm wrote into our lives.

In September of 1984, a year out of college, Norm sent me, by myself, to install the first computer at the Canadian office.  After it was unpacked and installed in their little closet of a computer room, it would boot and run, but would eventually halt.  Upset and frustrated and embarrassed, I called Norm.  He told me “Don’t be concerned about a short term problem, when it is part of a long term solution”.  This bit of wisdom written so long ago is still very legible on my page.