Good morning. For indeed Jews ask
for signs and Greeks search for wisdom. And so if God chooses to reveal Himself
in a way different from these, then they will not believe it. But we preach
Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness. To the
Jews, the Messiah was supposed to remain forever (in the book of John you even
had the public saying that to Jesus); and so saying that the Messiah was
crucified was heresy. The whole thing sounded ridiculous to the intellectuals.
Surely you had to seek God in some philosophical way, and by using your great
intellect find Him. But to those who are the called, Christ the power of God
and the wisdom of God (we will refer to this last phrase again at the end of
the chapter). The Jews wanted signs - Jesus rose from the dead. The Greeks
wanted wisdom - God‘s wisdom had the perfect way to bring about salvation, so
that it depended on Him and not man. Because the foolishness of God (simply
believing in what Jesus did for us and not having to do anything on our own is
certainly foolishness) is wiser than men, and the weakness of God (The Messiah
willingly allowing Himself to be crucified without any resistance is certainly
weakness) is stronger than men. Father thank You that You knew the best way to
bring everything about. Help us to share that with everyone around us.
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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