Good morning. We continue with Paul’s introduction. He was
very famous for extremely long sentences. Speaking of Jesus – who was declared
the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the
Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace
and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles
for His name’s sake, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ; to all
who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: grace to you and peace from
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. That plus all we did yesterday is one
sentence. Until Jesus was raised from the dead, He was just an extraordinary
man with miraculous powers. There have been numerous people throughout the ages
who have performed miracles such as He did; but none of them were raised
permanently from the dead. All three members of the Godhead are mentioned at
work in this sentence. Paul says that his designation as an apostle came
straight from Jesus. In other letters he also includes – not from man. He talks
about the obedience of faith among the Gentiles, because he’s writing to those
who mostly were Gentiles. We, as well as they, are called as saints – not as
“aints”. Father thank You that we are called as saints. Help us to live our
lives as saints showing forth Your life wherever we go.
Unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God
Good morning. While Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. Jesus was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men. Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. It doesn’t say, but I assume it is still during this time of the Passover. This man came to Jesus by night. Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do the signs that You do unless God is with him. It just said that the people believed in His name because of the signs He was doing; yet it does not say what those signs were. Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. That is why unbelievers cannot tell what is of the kingdom of God and what is not – they’re not born again. Nicodemus doesn’t have a clue. How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he? Unless one is born of water and the Spirit ...
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