To Believe in Jesus – Part 6

 

We need to believe in Jesus to “see” and “enter” the kingdom of God

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 3:1-8

1དེ་ཡང་ནེ་ཀོ་དེམ་ཞེས་པའི་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་ཞིག་ཡོད་པ་དེ་ནི་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པའི་ཆོས་དཔོན་ཞིག་ཡིན༌ལ། 2ནམ་ཞིག་གི་མཚན༌མོར། མི་དེ་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུར་མཇལ་དུ་ཡོང༌སྟེ། རཱབ་པེ་ལགས། དཀོན་མཆོག་ནི་ཁྱེད་དང་ལྷན་དུ་མི་བཞུགས༌ན། ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་མཛད་པའི་གྲུབ་རྟགས་རྣམས་མི་གཞན་སུས་ཀྱང་སྟོན་པར་མི་ནུས༌པས། ཁྱེད་ནི་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་དྲུང་ནས་ཕེབས་པའི་སློབ་དཔོན་ཞིག་ཡིན་པ་ངེད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཤེས་ཞེས་ཞུས་པ༌ན། 3སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཡང་དག་པར་བདེན་པར་སྨྲ༌སྟེ། གལ་ཏེ་མི་ཞིག་ཡང་བསྐྱར་མ་སྐྱེས་ན་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་རྒྱལ་སྲིད་མཐོང་མི་ནུས་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།། 4ཡང་ནེ་ཀོ་དེམ་ན༌རེ། མི་ཞིག་ཆེར་སྐྱེས་ནས་རྒས་ཚེ་ཡང་བསྐྱར་ཇི་ལྟར་སྐྱེ་ནུས༌སམ། སླར་ཡང་མའི་མངལ་དུ་ཞུགས་ཏེ་ལན་གཉིས་པར་སྐྱེ་སྲིད་དམ་ཞེས་ཞུས་པ༌ལ། 5ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཡང་དག་པར་བདེན་པར་སྨྲ༌སྟེ། གལ་ཏེ་མི་ཞིག་ཆུ་དང་དམ་པའི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་ཀྱི་སྒོ་ནས་མ་སྐྱེས་ན་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་རྒྱལ་སྲིད་དུ་ཞུགས་མི་ཐུབ་བོ།། 6ཤ་ཁྲག་གི་ཕུང་བོ་ལས་སྐྱེས་པ་ནི་ཤ་ཁྲག་གི་ཕུང་བོ་ཡིན་ཞིང་དམ་པའི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་ལས་སྐྱེས་པ་ནི་སེམས་ཉིད་ཡིན། 7བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རང་ཡང་བསྐྱར་སྐྱེ་དགོས་པ་ཡིན་ཞེས་སྨྲས་པ་ལ་ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་ངོ་མཚར་བར་མ་འདོད༌ཅིག 8རླུང་ནི་རང་བཞིན་དུ་གཡུག་ཅིང་ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་རླུང་གི་སྒྲ་ཐོས་ཀྱང་རླུང་དེ་གང་ནས་ཡོང་ཞིང་གང་དུ་རྒྱུ་བ་མི་ཤེས་པ༌ལྟར། དམ་པའི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་ལས་སྐྱེས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱང་དེ་བཞིན་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས་པ༌དང༌།

 

John 3:1-8

Now 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 him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 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.”

 

This Nicodemus who came to see Jesus was a prominent member of the Sanhedrin the ruling council of the Jews especially those living in Jerusalem.

Nicodemus addressed Jesus as a “teacher come from God“. A respectful approach but not yet convinced if Jesus is the Messiah chosen of God.

The Sanhedrin and the Pharisees had bonded themselves to their council’s ruling to reject Jesus as the Messiah chosen of God but apparently Nicodemus could not fully agree yet did not directly oppose the council’s decision.

Nicodemus did recognize that Jesus’ public ministries do speak of His position from God. That is something about Jesus that Nicodemus must find out more!

Therefore John specifically recorded that Nicodemus came by night to see Jesus and doing so to avoid possible harassment from his peers since he holds a prominent position in the Sanhedrin.

Jesus knew Nicodemus’ heart and mind were open and receptive and that he wanted to find out the whole truth himself if this Jesus is truly the Messiah chosen of God.

So Jesus’ first response to Nicodemus “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

 

What was Jesus trying to say to Nicodemus?

 

Jesus knew Nicodemus was seeking answer to the kingdom of God.

The Pharisees, Sadducee, and the Sanhedrin, even among all the common folks of the Jews and Gentiles in Jerusalem at that time were eagerly seeking the manifestation of the kingdom of God. But this issue of seeking the kingdom of God had been going on for a long time, why the heighten interest and popularity at this time?

 

མ་ལ་ཀི 3:1

ཀུན་དབང་ལྡན་པའི་གཙོ་བོ་དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་བཀའ་ལན་དུ། ངས་རང་གི་བང་ཆེན་དེ་ངའི་འགྲུལ་ལམ་གྲ་སྒྲིག་བྱེད་ཕྱིར་གཏོང་རྒྱུ་ཡིན་པ་དང་། དེ་རྗེས་ཁྱོད་ཚོས་འཚོལ་བའི་གཙོ་བོ་དེ་བློ་བུར་དུ་ཁོང་གི་མཆོད་ཁང་ནང་ཕེབས་པར་འགྱུར། ཁྱོད་ཚོས་འདོད་པའི་བང་ཆེན་དེ་ཡོང་ནས་ངའི་དམ་བཅའ་ཁྱབ་བསྒྲགས་བྱེད་པར་འགྱུར།

 

Malachi 3:1

“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.

 

The appearing of John the Baptist before Jesus had shaken up the whole nation of the Jews waiting for the Messiah to save Israel and they already knew the ministry of John the Baptist was in fulfillment of Scripture prophesy of the messenger spoken by Malachi before the appearing of the Messiah.

But what they understood of the “kingdom of God” at that time was according to the skewed interpretation of Scripture by their council, the Sanhedrin, and thus the wide-spread expectation for the national salvation of Israel from foreign rule and the full restoration of Israel to formal glory at that time. Means to say there was that perceived idea that the time had arrived for the liberation of Israel from Roman rule and who else should do this except the Messiah!

However, by this time when Nicodemus came to see Jesus, the Pharisees, Sadducee, and the Sanhedrin, knew this Jesus was not going to use His popularity to lead an army to defeat the Roman and to liberate Israel from the political control of Rome.

That was the reason some of these desperate folks kept asking Jesus, and they were very persistent, if Jesus is the Messiah!

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 10:24

ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཁོང་གི་མཐའ་བསྐོར་ཏེ་ན༌རེ། ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་དུས་ནམ་ཞིག་གི་བར་དུ་ངེད་ཅག་ལ་ཐེ་ཚོམ་སྐྱེས་སུ་འཇུག༌གམ། ཁྱེད་རང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་ཡིན་ན་ངེད་ཅག་ལ་གསལ་པོར་གསུང་བར་མཛོད་ཅེས་ཞུས་སོ།།

 

John 10:24

So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”

 

There had been obvious debates and heated arguments going on even within the council, as reflected in the public divisions of these leaders, so Nicodemus coming to Jesus by night points to his personal need for a better clearer answer directly from Jesus if possible.

So Jesus said to Nicodemus “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”. And when Nicodemus could not understand what Jesus first said He repeated

 

5ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཡང་དག་པར་བདེན་པར་སྨྲ༌སྟེ། གལ་ཏེ་མི་ཞིག་ཆུ་དང་དམ་པའི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་ཀྱི་སྒོ་ནས་མ་སྐྱེས་ན་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་རྒྱལ་སྲིད་དུ་ཞུགས་མི་ཐུབ་བོ།། 6ཤ་ཁྲག་གི་ཕུང་བོ་ལས་སྐྱེས་པ་ནི་ཤ་ཁྲག་གི་ཕུང་བོ་ཡིན་ཞིང་དམ་པའི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་ལས་སྐྱེས་པ་ནི་སེམས་ཉིད་ཡིན། 7བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རང་ཡང་བསྐྱར་སྐྱེ་དགོས་པ་ཡིན་ཞེས་སྨྲས་པ་ལ་ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་ངོ་མཚར་བར་མ་འདོད༌ཅིག 8རླུང་ནི་རང་བཞིན་དུ་གཡུག་ཅིང་ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་རླུང་གི་སྒྲ་ཐོས་ཀྱང་རླུང་དེ་གང་ནས་ཡོང་ཞིང་གང་དུ་རྒྱུ་བ་མི་ཤེས་པ༌ལྟར། དམ་པའི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་ལས་སྐྱེས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱང་དེ་བཞིན་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས་པ༌དང༌།

 

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 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.”

 

What was Jesus talking about?

To “see” and “enter” the kingdom of God is to know and understand the will of God, and to act according to God’s will so that to enter the full blessing of God in His kingdom.

Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus who should be very well-versed in Jewish history about how God called Abraham and gives him the Promised Land and that generation Moses led out of Egypt refused to “enter” the Promised Land because of their disbelief. But the next generation led by Joshua did enter the Promised Land because they believed and acted in obedience to God’s will.

The Israelite entering the Promised Land was excellent history lesson about entering the kingdom of God and living in it.

By the time of Jesus appearing, the Pharisees, Sadducee, and the Sanhedrin, had their own interpretation of what was written in Scripture about the coming Messiah and how God should save Israel and restore the kingdom to Israel. So they had a distorted perspective of the kingdom of God! Therefore they could not see the real kingdom of God because they were holding on to their version of the kingdom of God! And since because the Sanhedrin was the ruling class they wanted their way to prevail!

That was why there were plentiful of confusion and disagreements.

So therefore Jesus addressed this problem head-on “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”.

And with Jesus’ reference to “water“, “wind“, and “Spirit“, Nicodemus who was a ruler of the Jews would had knew the connection to what was written in Exodus 14 and  Ezekiel 37.

Exodus 14 – Moses led the children to cross the Red Sea. We today understood that with strong connection to John the Baptist water baptism. To die to our old self, repent of our old sins, live the new life God have given us through Jesus! The Pharisees, Sadducee, and the Sanhedrin, rejected John the Baptist water baptism.

Ezekiel 37 – What happen to those dry bones do speaks of God’s power to restore and revive, and the Pharisees did understood Ezekiel’s message to means God’s power of resurrection!

After the death and resurrection of Jesus we now have a better understanding of the regeneration works of the Holy Spirit.

 

To be continue ….

 

David Z