1. Born Twice? More about Jesus Seminar #3 - Guide To see the 26
Video seminar links list visit
http://nfltrashtalk.com/peaceful-resources/ How can you live
forever? I once heard that, Without a conversion experience, you
will never live forever. If that's true, then logic tells me I need
to know exactly what conversion is, and how to experience it. What
is conversion? I decided to check the net, and to my surprise up
popped a website called Online Conversion.com. WoW! How convenient!
It sounded like the perfect place to learn about conversion. On the
site, there are conversion charts and calculators, and tables and
such that can be used to convert all kinds of things; such as
currencies, volume measurements of all kinds, or weights and
measures of all types, but no conversion calculator for converting
a sinner to a saint, or a stranger to a friend, or even a hostile
relationship into a loving one! That's really what needs to be
converted if I'm not mistaken. A stranger or enemy of GOD needs to
be converted into a friend of GOD sharing a relationship of Love,
right? so... 2. How do you fall in love? Can anyone force you to
fall in love? Without a conversion experience you will never have a
genuine relationship with Jesus. Where can I find out more? So,
let's take a look at The New Birth story. Who was Nicodemus? HERE'S
THE SET UP. Jesus knows all about Nicodemus status, background, and
especially his education. [I like Nic. He wasn't like the other
conceited, proud, obnoxious Jewish leaders we hear so much about,
despite his wealth and status.] 3. John 3: 1-21 1 There was a man
of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man
came to Jesus by night and said to Him, 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. 3 Jesus answered and said to him, Most
assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God. [Notice that Jesus totally ignored the
complement that was meant (as ALL complements are) to create an
acceptance or good will toward the issuer, but which ultimately
plants & nurtures the seed of pride, and we all know what pride
leads to. Lee is saying that see the kingdom of GOD actually means
that without a spiritual rebirth Nicodemus couldn't even understand
spiritual things. How many of us have always thought the phrase
meant could not go to Heaven? It's amazing how a small
misconceptions can create significantly incorrect conclusions, But,
believe it or not, Jesus intentionally spoke in parables to confuse
those who chose not to believe in Him. Mathew describes the problem
like this... excerpts from Mt 13:13-15 Jesus said, 13 Therefore I
speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and
hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 4. 14 And in them
the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: Hearing you will
hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not
perceive; 15 For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their
ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, [This
discourse is all talking about the Spiritual realm where the New
Birth needs to take place.] Another example... 2 Corinthians
4:3-4The Voice (VOICE) 3 Now if our gospel remains veiled, it is
only veiled from those who are lost and dying, [Why can't they see
it?] 4 because the evil god of this age has blinded the minds of
unbelievers. As a result [the parables of Jesus seem like difficult
riddles to them.] the light of the good news, the radiant glory of
the Anointed who is the very image of God cannot shine down on
them. John continues... ch. 3:4 Nicodemus said to Him, How can a
man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his
mothers womb and be born? 5 Jesus answered, Most assuredly, I say
to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter
the kingdom of God. 5. Where On Earth is the Kingdom Of GOD right
now? In the hearts & minds of man! So how do we enter that
kingdom? What's the real deal with the water baptism? Could it
symbolize the drowning of the physical body, symbolically killing
it off, since it is the weakness of the flesh that holds us in
bondage to sin? Perhaps we need to hold people down under a little
longer to give them the sense that the old sinful nature is getting
killed off! Lol, Just kidding! It has always been taught that
baptism symbolizes the washing away of sins. But, taking a bath
just didn't fit into that picture of getting rid of sin for me,
until It was tied to the Spirit part of the verse. Who wants to put
clean cloths (The robe of Christ's Righteousness) on a dirty body,
so you take a bath first. That covers the physical part but the
only way to get the robe is through the heart & mind in the
Spiritual realm. The Spiritual heart & mind is reborn into a
new family, the family of GOD, (Referred to as the seed in lesson
two) and it's God that gives you the free robe. {~The robe is a
Family heirloom that you get to keep forever!~} You could throw it
away... but who would want to? That's the robe of Christ's
Righteousness, the free gift that covers every imperfection of this
imperfect life and makes you look like brand new, day one, &
perfect in GOD'S EYES. No one else's opinion matters. 6. The reason
why you look like brand new, day one, & perfect in GOD'S EYES
is because it is a complete overhaul, a total Spiritual rebirth.
The 'washing away' of sin = the confession of sorrow for the sins
in our lives, and then... The Spirit = the robe of Christs
Righteousness, which is our new 'outfit' that God is putting on
that body. God is playing the role of a servant to us... We aren't
putting the robe on, God is doing it for us. He supplied the robe
as a free gift, and we know it will fit, because He is our tailor!
GOD DOES IT ALL! John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh,
and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. [Jesus clearly
separates the two realms here, & Verses 5 & 6 are basically
saying that the birth being referred to is not a physical one.
Nicodemus (Nic) is still thinking in the physical realm when he
needs to be thinking in the Spiritual realm. In verse 6 Jesus
basically tells Nic that he needs to get the difference. It's
interesting that Jesus makes this distinction between the flesh
& the Spirit here. It fits quite well with the description in
the last seminar(#2) where Paul is talking about the struggle
between his physical desires (flesh) and his mental desires
(spiritual).] 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, You must be born
again. 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of
it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is
everyone who is born of the Spirit. 7. [in other words, you can't
see the Spirit but you can see the results of it being present in
the persons life.] 9 How can this be? Nicodemus asked. [Now, Lee
skips over the next 4 verses, (10-13) and I can't say that I blame
him much because there are some conundrums in there that I'm trying
to figure out, and he didn't have time to cover them right now. You
can skip to the next line down to continue with where Lee
continues.]
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10 Jesus answered and said to him, Are you the teacher of Israel,
and do not know these things? 11 Most assuredly, I say to you, We
speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not
receive Our witness. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you
do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
[To what earthly things is Jesus referring?] 13 No one has ascended
to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man
who is in heaven. [I don't get it. This whole verse 13 just doesn't
make sense. Didn't Enoch 'walk with God & God took him'? So, if
Enoch didn't ascend to Heaven, where is he? AH Ha! Perhaps that's
that's the answer! Took vs. Ascend. Enoch had to be taken but Jesus
had the power to go on his own! This whole 'Ascended & came
down & who is in Heaven' thing doesn't make sense though.
Jesus, the 'Son Of Man' was sitting right there saying all this. 8.
What exactly is Jesus point in saying this, since He has not yet
died and ascended to his father? Also, how is the 'Son of man' in
Heaven when He is sitting there talking to Nic? Is He making
reference here to the fact that He & The Father are one and so
He is in both places at once? Is he simply giving Nic a hard saying
in order to give an example of the point mentioned in the previous
verse, because it is certainly working that way for me right now.
Lee continues here with Jesus answering Nic's last question, How
can this be, or as Lee believes Nic meant to say 'How can this
happen', or 'How can I be born of the Spirit' or even, 'what can I
do to get this'? Now Jesus goes to an example that he knows the
'well read Pharisee', Nic has read and perhaps taught many times.
The story of the snake in the wilderness has many parallels and
plenty of symbolism. John 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
Numbers 21 New King James Version (NKJV) v4 Then they journeyed
from Mount Hor 9. Well, when you look at the view from Mt Hor
toward the Red Sea (now known as Jabal Aron because of the tomb of
Aron built on its top [it is modern day Petra in Jordan]) you can
see what they had to travel through. by the Way of the Red Sea, to
go around the land of Edom; Looking at the map below this makes the
phrase wandering in the wilderness really come to life, because Mt.
Hor {Green arrow} is right in the middle of ancient Edom (red
dotted line). That means they (pink diamond) were heading south,
AWAY from the promised land! The light blue line is how they got to
Mt. Hor and the dark line blue shows the approximate route they
took to the east of the gulf of Ababa (Red Sea) to eventually
arrive and pitch camp at Ije-abarim (which literally means in the
border of Moab). When you search Ije-abarim on Google Earth, it
takes us strait to Mt. Nebo which is the Mountain that God told
Moses to climb so he could see the promised land. You can easily
see that Jericho isn't much further from there. 10. So, they
traveled eastward around Edom, and then north through the vast
wilderness until they arrived at Moab which was directly north of
Edom on the Dead Sea, and the snake story apparently happened
somewhere along the way to Moab. On top of Mt. Nebo today you will
find two memorials Honoring Moses. Mt. Nebo is just across the
Jordan river from the city of Jericho. 11. [Edom was the land of
Esau, you know the guy! His twin brother Jacob ripped him off for
the family fortune, (the Birthright Blessing) which shows that
sibling rivalries between twins is nothing new! (Self centered
Pride) Cain & Able may not have been twins, but you know that
story... ~ Self centered Pride ~ The Opposite of Love, ...is always
the core issue in evil. You can understand why they (Jacobs kids)
were not supposed to fight with Edom (Esau's kids), since they were
close cousins, & Abraham's seed right? and the soul of the
people became very discouraged on the way. When we look at the
desolate land, it certainly breeds sympathy for the Israelites, but
what was it that would cause God to become so angry He would send
Vipers in among them? 5 And the people spoke against God and
against Moses: Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in
the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul
loathes this worthless bread. WoW! Now here in this passage are
parallels & symbols that Jesus used often in his parables (or
riddles, depending on your relationship with God) Let's break it
down. Spoke against God and against Moses: It's always a bad idea
to speak against God! (If you aren't FOR HIM you are against Him)
You may recall that Moses had been set up by God, to 'be God to
Pharaoh' at the very beginning of 'his calling' when God spoke to
him at the burning bush. He was as God to Pharaoh and it seams that
Arron was God's 'voice', (or word) symbolizing Jesus, (the word of
God made flesh) and Arron then became the 'High Priest', another
characteristic of what Jesus does for us in Heaven. 12. Why have
you brought us up out of Egypt Here, their complaint is symbolic of
man preferring slavery to sin vs. freedom from it through Jesus. No
food and no water, No Faith? No salvation. (Where's their faith
after all they've seen God do!?!) 'and our soul loathes' In their
hearts and minds they had hatred for 'this worthless bread.' Ouch!
That must have really hurt God right there. When they ate the Manna
where was it? Inside them... Manna, The Bread of Life (Jesus),
'Sent down from Heaven' (yes He was), to sustain their lives
(representing ever lasting life through the indwelling Jesus)
...and the Israelite s are calling it worthless, and saying they
hate it all in one sentence! It's no wonder that God sent another
symbol to show them the results of their ingratitude. This symbol
he took strait from the Garden of Eden & used it in Edom. (That
Eden/Edom thing could be confusing if you don't pay attention. ;o)
6 So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit
the people; and many of the people of Israel died. I can imagine
Him symbolically snatching it right off the tree of knowledge of
good and evil and tossing it into their midst, and when it hit the
ground it shattered into thousands of vipers. So God used the
symbol of the Originator of Bondage to Sin to illustrate to the
people exactly what it was that they were asking for. Satan chose a
serpent in the original temptation of man, & the serpent brings
death to the people! There is absolutely NO WAY that Nicodemus can
miss this lesson, right? 13. Nu 21:7 (ASV) And the people came to
Moses, and said, We have sinned, because we have spoken against
Jehovah, and against thee; pray unto Jehovah, that He take away the
serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. The people
admitted their guilt! So, Moses went back to God to pray for the
people who are suffering and dying from 'their close association to
the snake. (a snake has to 'be close' to bite, right, and the
snakes were all around, so they were symbolicly 'hanging out with
the devil' right there, But God saved them!) God then has Moses
make a snake of brass (polished brass, a Fiery serpent) on a
cross/standard and lift it up on a pole so all the people could see
it. Nu 21:8 And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery
serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that
every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. I
wonder how many people died while Moses was making the large brass
snake & cross combo? He'd have to get some guys to make a mold,
gather plenty of wood to melt the brass in some kind of furnace and
so on. Someone needs to collect the brass, etc. That could take a
lot of time, days? Weeks in fact, unless it happened as another
miracle, but there is no mention of one here. We know that they are
just repeating a process they've used at least once already. They
disobeyed God when they made & worshiped the golden calf, so
here we go again. At least this time God ordered the image to be
made. Why a fiery serpent? A highly polished brass ball will flash
like fire in the hot desert sun and can be seen for miles in about
a 160 degree radius! Imagine all the flashes coming off the angles
on the body of a coiled snake. Nu 21:9 And Moses made a serpent of
brass, and set it upon the standard: and it came to pass, that if a
serpent had bitten any man, when he looked unto the serpent of
brass, he lived. 14. No conditions are attached to this salvation.
At least none are mentioned and I'm certain God will never omit a
life & death necessity! You could get bit, and then look unto
the serpent on the pole by accident and live. Did anyone get bit
twice? Would looking at it a second time work again? It doesn't
list a single requirement in order to be saved other than to look
(unto Jesus), but I'm pretty certain that Moses waiting for the
people to repent holds plenty of significance. If we don't think
that we need to be saved, why would we seek to be saved? Side note:
The Israelites left Egypt with 600,000 men. Add their families and
NOW think about how large a serpent would need to be made &
lifted up, & how high, in order for everyone to see it? Have
you ever seen a crowd of 1.5 million people? I haven't. Imagine
that many people pulling up stakes (literally) and moving/changing
countries as a group... wait for it to hit you! Yep, I would hate
to be a part of that crowd. That's 1 man + 1 woman + 1 child (a
small family) times 500,000. Israel was much larger than that when
they left Egypt. It's a Port-A-Potty maintenance mans nightmare for
starters! Don't ask me to fill in for Moses when he's on vacation,
right!?!? Moses! Why would you want to deal with 2 million people,
out in the middle of a wasteland? Well, as we recall, he didn't
want to do it. He tried to argue his way out of it at the burning
bush. However, you can't win an argument with God, and Moses
quickly ran out of reasons why 'he couldn't do it'. Why? 15.
Because, God always provides a solution for everything, and Moses
believed and trusted in God. God's solution has always been, I know
you can't do it, and that's why I'm doing it all for you. Just
fasten your seat belt & Hold on Tight, & I'll negotiate the
bumps in the road. My grace is sufficient for you! Jesus knows that
Nicodemus, knows this HISTORICAL FAILURE by his forefathers, very
well. So he continues John 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, All
that the people had to do is to look at, or towards the uplifted
snake and they would be saved & live. They just had to look. By
looking they were healed and the healing gave them faith. We aren't
required to have faith to look at Jesus! Seeing the work that God
does in our life, grows & strengthens our faith. Joh 1:29
(MKJV) The next day John sees Jesus coming to him and says, Behold
the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! Behold, or
Look @ Jesus. And HE takes away your sin. Joh 12:32 (MKJV) And I,
if I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to Myself.
16. The power of a look! The Daily Meaningful Constantly Growing
Prayer ~ & ~ Bible Study Is ALL you'll Need! Give GOD that each
day And just watch what He'll do with you! Everything else will
fall into place! It did for me, and it will for you! What if we all
tithed our time? 16 hours awake, @10% tithe = about an hour and a
half with GOD each day. Hmm, an hour in the AM & a half hour at
night sounds like a great beginning, and I know that you'll soon be
at 2 hours and up without even realizing it. To see all 26 Video
seminar links visit http://nfltrashtalk.com/peaceful-resources/
Gospel of John Visible Bible on YouYube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ-xbrMecBc
