2BC BIBLE STUDY NOTES

Wednesday in the Word

Second Baptist Church

June 4, 2025

John 2:12-John 3:6

1. Verses 12-14. Jesus leaves the wedding and travels with his disciples and family to Capenraum for the Passover festival. When Jesus arrives in the temple court, he sees the activities in the courtyard of the gentiles and decides he will run the merchants out. The merchants and money changers were using a sacred space to make profits for themselves. They were selling products at inflated prices and giving low rates of exchange for foreign currency used by pilgrims wishing to purchase items for sacrifices. The merchants were profiting off the people’s desire to serve God. (see Deut. 14:22-29) These pilgrim worshipers would have to pay the half-shekel temple tax in the coinage of the temple, and thus foreign monies were unacceptable and had to be exchanged for the proper coins. These worshippers also had to offer up their sacrifices, and for many of these travelers, the only solution was to buy a sacrificial animal there in Jerusalem. Those who attempted to bring their own sacrificial animals may very well have had them “rejected’ by the temple priests and thereby were forced to purchase “approved” animals at much higher prices. The animals were originally sold outside the city, but by the time of Jesus, the priests had figured a way to profit by having their own approved vendors who would sell the animals that they would approve. The same gouging no doubt took place at the money-exchangers’ tables.

2. Verses 15-16. Jesus sees this brazen display of profiteering and decides to make a whip and run theses so called businessmen out of the temple courts. Jesus chastises the people for turning the place of worship and praise into a place of profit. The house of God is not a place of profit but praise. These men had turned a convenience into an opportunity to cheat and profit. Churches are for worship; markets are for profit.

3. Verses 17-25. The Jews questioned Jesus concerning his authority to run the merchants out of the temple. Jesus tells them that he will demonstrate his authority one day by rebuilding the temple after it is destroyed. Of course he wasn’t talking about the actual temple, but he was talking about his resurrection. The Jews responded by saying it took 46 years to build the temple so he could he rebuild the temple in 3 days. It wasn’t until after his death and resurrection that his disciples remembered and believed these words. Jesus continued to do more miracles to show that he was the Messiah.

4. Chapter 3:1-2. In our text today, a prominent man in the group of Pharisees, by the name of Nicodemus, comes to Jesus at night to have some private time with Jesus. He comes at night when he is least likely to be seen by others. At this point, the Pharisees are antagonistic towards Jesus. Jesus has gained a considerable following, and he is taking folks away from them. This man is seeking clarity about what Jesus is saying and teaching. He heard Jesus and was interested in what he was saying. Many people like Nicodemus hated Jesus, but this man saw something in Jesus that made him want to investigate his teachings. As a matter of fact, Nicodemus believed Jesus. He would not have come to see if he had not. Nicodemus believed the miracles and the signs that Jesus performed. The signs validated Jesus’ ministry, and Nicodemus could not deny that. Nicodemus just couldn’t understand some of the things Jesus was teaching. Jesus was teaching some things that were different, and more radical that he had ever known. He wanted to believe them, but they were so much different than what he was previously taught and what he had taught others. Have you ever learned something, then taught someone what you learned only to find out later that you learned wrong. It is hard to admit that. Here Nicodemus is standing in front of the Messiah and he cannot deny his power, but it is hard to accept the fact that teachings are so radical to his own. So Nicodemus comes to Jesus and says “We know you are a teacher sent by God because of the signs that no one can deny.” Nicodemus admits he cannot deny the signs.

5. Verses 3-4. Jesus responds to Nicodemus’s statement with another statement. No one can see the kingdom of God unless you are born again. You must be born again. Jesus says that entrance into the kingdom of God is based on the fact that you must be born again. Jesus doesn’t say you have to be baptized to see the kingdom of God. He says you must be born again. Jesus doesn’t say that you must pay a tithe. He says you must be born again. Jesus does not say you have to know all the scriptures. He says you must be born again. Nicodemus was born a Jew and powerful, but his riches  could not get him into the kingdom of God. Nicodemus was educated, but his education could not get him into the kingdom of God. Nicodemus was well respected. He was known to be a good man, but being a good person was not going to get you into the kingdom of God. Nicodemus was a religious man. He read the word, he studied the word of God. He went to the temple. He sang the songs of Zion.. He gave his tithes, but those things could not get him into the kingdom of God. Nicodemus is really puzzled. If Jesus had confused him before now, he is really confused. Nicodemus does not have a clue to what Jesus is talking about. So, he does the best thing when you don’t understand. He asks a question. He wants to know how a person can be born again. A person cannot go back into his mother’s womb and come out again. Is this second birth like my first birth? What is required for this second birth. How does this born again thing happen?

6. Verses 5-6. Jesus responds by saying that no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and born of the spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh and Spirit gives birth to spirit. What is Jesus talking about? Well, there are two schools of thought with regards to these verses. Many would say that Jesus was saying that a person must be baptized in water then baptized in the spirit and then they are born again. That is not bad, but I think it misses the mark. Water baptism is important, but it does not save a person. Water baptism is a symbol of being born again. People in the bible were baptized as an act of showing they were repenting of their sins or to show that they were now believers. When we talk about salvation, we have bible verse after bible verse that say that one is saved when they believed. John 1:12 and 13 Say yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave them the right to become children of God. Children born not of natural descent nor of human decision or of husbands’ will, but born of God. Even in John 3:16. Jesus says that whoever believes in his name will not perish but have everlasting life. Paul states in Romans 1:16 1 am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation of everyone that believes. In Romans 10 chapter Paul says in verse 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you shall be saved. Verse 13 says everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Salvation comes when you believe and accept that Jesus is Lord. The messiah, the gift that brings salvation. Baptism is what believers do to show that they are now believers. Baptism is what we do to show the world that we have been united with Christ in his death burial and resurrection. Jesus said we must be born again. When Jesus says born of water, he is paralleling verse 5 with the phrase in verse 6 that says flesh births flesh. Being born of water represented the water that we are all in inside our mother’s womb. Which represents our first birth. The phrase born of the Spirit refers to the spiritual conversion that happens when we first believe in his name. The baptism that we have comes by faith when we believe. Ephesians 1:13 says that “You were also included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed you were marked in him with a seal, the precious Holy Ghost." The Spirit of God was placed in you when you believed. That is the spiritual baptism. That is the mark that you are now born again. And later in the book of Ephesians in chapter four verse 4 states that there is one lord one faith and one baptism. There are not several baptisms. There isn’t a water baptism then a spirit baptism. There is one baptism when you believe and that is the baptism of the Holy Spirit which saves the sinner. Baptism means for you to be in something and something to be in you. Which happens at your conversion when you accept the fact that Jesus is the son of God raised from the dead and who is now Lord of Lords and King of Kings. So, Jesus says a person has to be born again. He is right, a person has to be first born of his mother, born of flesh, which we all are. We all have the first birth, but we must be born again. We must be born of the Spirit. And we are born of the spirit when we choose to believe in Jesus Christ to be the Son of the Living God.

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