John 3:1-21

Link to text: John 3:1-21

Crushed Ice
1. What interesting stories have you heard about your birth?

Discussion
1. To see all the Nicodemus sightings, check out John 19:39-40, then work backwards, to 7:50-52, then to John 3. For each passage, what relationship does it seem Nicodemus has in relation to Jesus?
2. Why did Nicodemus come at night? (v 2, v 19-20)
3. What is your understanding of “kingdom of God”? (v 3)
4. Compare/contrast citizenship in a world’s kingdom versus the kingdom of God.
5. What is the significance, if any, of the difference in v 1:12-13 (“..born of God”) and 3:5 (“…born of water and the Spirit”)
6. What does it mean that “spirit gives birth to spirit” (v 6)?
7. What does Jesus have to do with Moses’ snake? (v 14, Numbers 21:5-9) What are the parallels in the Old Testament scene in the dessert and what Jesus is talking about here?
8. What point is Jesus making in comparing spiritual birth to the wind? (ie. What is wind like?)
9. How does Jesus account for Nicodemus’ lack of understanding?
10. Compare/contrast a newborn baby to a newborn Christian.
11. What does Jesus claim about himself in v 13-15?
12. From v 16-18, what stands out to you about God? About what he wants to do? About how a person is condemned? How will belief show itself (v 15-21)?
13. How is Jesus’ use of the words “born again” similar to and different from the way it is used today?
14. How would you define “born again” in your own words?
15. What is “eternal life”? (v 16)
16. Why did God send Jesus into the world? (v 17)
17. What does “believe in him” mean? (v 16, 17)
18. Before talking to Jesus, what was Nicodemus’ likely understanding of who would see the kingdom of God? Who does Jesus say has the opportunity to see the kingdom of God?
19. What are the practical truths in v 19-21? Ie. Are there real world examples of this?
20. Given the other two passages about Nicodemus later in the New Testament, what practical insights do you gather regarding evangelism?
21. If there are other ways to see the kingdom of God, then is Jesus lying?

Bottom Line Point(s):
1. God loved. God gave. We believe. We receive.
2. Faith is a journey.

How can you apply what you’ve learned here?
1. Live in the light – above reproach.
2. Don’t rush pre-Christians.
3. Believe in Jesus and you will be born again, and will see the kingdom of God.

Bibliography
1. Barton & others, "Life Application Bible Commentary: John"
2. MacArthur, "John – Jesus, the Word, the Messiah, the Son of God"
3. "Serendipity Study Bible for Groups"
4. “Life Application Study Bible, NIV”
5. Mears, “What the Bible is All About – Bible Handbook”
6. Bible Study Fellowship International, “The Gospel of John”
7. Grudem, “Systematic Theology”

John 1:1-18

Link to text: John 1:1-18

Crushed Ice
1. What was your nickname growing up? How did you get that name? Did it stick?

Discussion
1. Take a look at the first few verses of the other gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) and contrast to how John begins.
2. Compare to beginning of Genesis. Which sounds like it came first, chronologically, John 1:1 or Genesis 1:1? Or were they simultaneous?
3. Why did John write his book and why did he start differently than the other gospels and similar to Genesis? (hint 1: John was written a generation after the other gospels, after many false teachers had denied Jesus was the Son of God)(hint 2: John 20:31)
4. Just reading verses 1-5, what or who is “the Word”? What can you conclude about “the Word” in v 1-5?
5. Who or what fails to comprehend the light? Why? (v5, 10-11)
6. John the Baptist (not John the disciple, & author) is mentioned in v. 6. What was his purpose?
7. How does being “born of God” relate to or differ from being “born of natural descent” in v. 12-13?
8. Read v 14 in the context of v 1-5. What or who is “the Word”?
9. Read v 17 in the context of v 14, and v 1-5. What or who is “the Word”?
10. Read Colossians 1:15-17. What additional information do you find in Col 1:16 that you do not find in John 1:3?
11. Read Genesis 1:26 in the context of this passage. Who is “us” and “our” referring to?
12. Sometimes “the Word” is used to describe the Bible. Is that the intent here? What is the Bible about?
13. Respond to the C.S. Lewis excerpt below. Do you agree or disagree?

Bottom Line Point(s):
1. As the Word, the Son of God - Jesus Christ, fully conveys and communicates God.

How can you apply what you’ve learned here?
1. If you want to know God – know Jesus.

From “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis…
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I am ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

Bibliography
1. Barton & others, "Life Application Bible Commentary: John"
2. MacArthur, "John – Jesus, the Word, the Messiah, the Son of God"
3. "Serendipity Study Bible for Groups"
4. “Life Application Study Bible, NIV”
5. Mears, “What the Bible is All About – Bible Handbook”
6. Bible Study Fellowship International, “The Gospel of John”
7. C.S. Lewis, “Mere Christianity”
8. Grudem, “Systematic Theology”