Transcript

Today’s Bible Translation

Bible translation used in today’s episode: Ch. 3 ERV, Ch. 4 NKJV

Distinguished Producer

Anonymous

Associate Producer

Michael Haner

Podcast Introduction

Today is Gospels Saturday. We’ll read John chapters 3-4! I’m calling this episode “Born Again – Salvation Beyond Merit.”

Summary of John 3

In John chapter three, Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council, visited Jesus at night. Jesus told him that unless someone is born again, they cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus was puzzled by this concept, as he thought being born into the Jewish race guaranteed a place in God’s kingdom. Jesus explained that being born again refers to a spiritual rebirth, which is brought about by the Holy Spirit. He emphasized that human effort alone cannot achieve this new birth.

Jesus clarified that to be born again, one must believe in Him as the Son of God. He spoke of God’s love for the world and how He sent His Son to save it. Whoever believes in Jesus will have eternal life, while those who do not believe are already condemned. Believing in Jesus means putting faith and trust in Him, surrendering control of one’s life to Him. Jesus, as God Himself, is capable of guiding and lovingly caring for our lives.

The invitation is extended to everyone to invite Jesus into their lives and experience the new birth and eternal life that He offers. He stands at the door, ready to be invited in, bringing hope, purpose, and a relationship with God.

Listen to the episode for more!

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The Team

Lifespring Family Berean, Sister Denise: Transcript Correction
Michael Haner: Podcasting: 2.0 Chapters
Scott Snider: Show Art
Jason Paschall: Show Art
Lifespring Family Berean, Sister Brittaney: Newsletter Publisher

Transcript

Download .txt file.

Transcript corrected by Sister Denise

Steve Webb 0:00
I have seen this happen.

Steve Webb 0:09
Coming to you from Riverside, California, this is the Lifespring! One Year Bible, and podcasting since 2004, I’m your OG Godcaster, Steve Webb. Welcome! I’m so glad you’re with me today. This is the daily show where we’re reading through the entire Bible in a year and today is Gospel Saturday. We’ll read John chapters 3 and 4. Before we get started, let’s have a word of prayer. Our gracious heavenly Father, we thank you for the weekend. And we thank you for blessing us with your Word. And I pray, Lord, that as we read today, you would teach us, that you would touch our hearts and touch our minds. I pray this in Jesus’ name, amen. Okay, let’s get going.

Steve Webb 0:49
John, chapter 3. There was a man named Nicodemus, one of the Pharisees. He was an important Jewish leader. One night he came to Jesus and said, “Teacher, we know that you are a teacher sent from God. No one can do these miraculous signs that you do unless they have God’s help.” Jesus answered, “I assure you, everyone must be born again. Anyone who is not born again cannot be in God’s kingdom.” Nicodemus said, “How can a man who is already old be born again? Can he go back into his mother’s womb and be born a second time?” Jesus answered, “Believe me when I say that everyone must be born from water and the Spirit. Anyone who is not born from water and the Spirit cannot enter God’s kingdom. The only life people get from their human parents is physical. But the new life that the Spirit gives a person is spiritual. Don’t be surprised that I told you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it wants to. You hear it, but you don’t know where it is coming from or where it is going. It is the same with everyone who is born from the Spirit.” Nicodemus asked, “How is all this possible?” Jesus said, “You are an important teacher of Israel, and you still don’t understand these things? The truth is, we talk about what we know. We tell about what we have seen. But you people don’t accept what we tell you. I have told you about things here on earth, but you do not believe me. So I’m sure you will not believe me if I tell you about heavenly things! The only one who has ever gone up to heaven is the one who came down from heaven—the Son of Man. “Moses lifted up the snake in the desert. It is the same with the Son of Man. He must be lifted up too. Then everyone who believes in him can have eternal life.” Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him would not be lost but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world. He did not send him to judge the world guilty, but to save the world through him. People who believe in God’s Son are not judged guilty. But people who do not believe are already judged, because they have not believed in God’s only Son. They are judged by this fact: The light has come into the world. But they did not want light. They wanted darkness, because they were doing evil things. Everyone who does evil hates the light. They will not come into the light, because the light will show all the bad things they have done. But anyone who follows the true way comes to the light. Then the light will show that whatever they have done was done through God. After this, Jesus and his followers went into the area of Judea. There he stayed with his followers and baptized people. John was also baptizing people in Aenon, a place near Salim with plenty of water. People were going there to be baptized. This was before John was put in prison. Some of John’s followers had an argument with another Jew about religious washing. Then they came to John and said, “Teacher, remember the man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan River? He is the one you were telling everyone about. He is also baptizing people, and many are going to him.” John answered, “A person can receive only what God gives. You yourselves heard me say, ‘I am not the Messiah. I am only the one God sent to prepare the way for him.’ The bride always belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who helps the bridegroom just waits and listens. He is happy just to hear the bridegroom talk. That’s how I feel now. I am so happy that he is here. He must become more and more important, and I must become less important. “The one who comes from above is greater than all others. The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth. He talks about things that are on the earth. But the one who comes from heaven is greater than all others. He tells what he has seen and heard, but people don’t accept what he says. Whoever accepts what he says has given proof that God speaks the truth. God sent him, and he tells people what God says. God gives him the Spirit fully. The Father loves the Son and has given him power over everything. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. But those who do not obey the Son will never have that life. They cannot get away from God’s anger.”

Steve Webb 5:19
John, chapter 4. Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples), He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. But He needed to go through Samaria. So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?” Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.” And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why are You talking with her?” The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” Then they went out of the city and came to Him. In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” Therefore the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.” And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.” So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. And many more believed because of His own word. Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.” Now after the two days He departed from there and went to Galilee. For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they also had gone to the feast. So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and implored Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.” The nobleman said to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies!” Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your son lives.” So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way. And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, “Your son lives!” Then he inquired of them the hour when he got better. And they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives.” And he himself believed, and his whole household. This again is the second sign Jesus did when He had come out of Judea into Galilee.

Steve Webb 11:16
Let’s talk about chapter 3. Of this chapter, Charles Spurgeon said, “If we were asked to read to a dying man who did not know the gospel, we should probably select this chapter as the most suitable one for such an occasion; and what is good for dying men is good for us all, for that is what we are; and how soon we may be actually at the gates of death, none of us can tell.” Well, in this chapter, Beloved, one of the Jewish elites came to Jesus in the night. His name was Nicodemus, and he was a member of the Sanhedrin, the ruling council of the Jews. Now he may have come for personal reasons or official. We’re not told. That he came at night might have been because the crowds that typically gathered around Jesus would be gone for the day and they’d be able to have a quiet discussion. Or he may have come at night so that he wouldn’t be seen with Jesus. By now Jesus had a reputation as a miracle worker having turned the water to wine at the wedding, but he also had a reputation as a troublemaker, having overturned the tables in the temple. It could be as a member of the Sanhedrin maybe Nicodemus wanted to speak to Jesus in the official capacity of ascertaining who Jesus was, what he was teaching, and what he meant to accomplish. This is the kind of information that the Sanhedrin would want to know. Or maybe Nicodemus just wanted to see this charismatic man with his own eyes. Because of his position. Nicodemus obviously knew who John the Baptist was, and perhaps he was aware of what John said about Jesus. Remember, John the Baptist said, “I also did not know who the Messiah was, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘You will see the Spirit come down and rest on a man. He is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.'” John continued, “I have seen this happen. I saw the Spirit come down from heaven like a dove and rest on this man. So this is what I tell people, He is the Son of God.” So perhaps Nicodemus wanted to see if Jesus was the Messiah? Well, the first thing he said to Jesus was “Teacher,” (or Rabbi, a term of respect) “Teacher, we know that you are a teacher sent from God. No one can do these miraculous signs that you do unless they have God’s help.” Well, in saying, “We know that you are,” Nicodemus might have been saying, “We the Sanhedrin know,” but it’s just as likely that he meant people in these parts consider you to be a teacher, etcetera. In his response, notice that Jesus didn’t even address this statement. Jesus went directly to the heart of his purpose. He said, “I assure you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Well, this statement must have hit Nicodemus like a ton of bricks because the Jews believed that as God’s Chosen People. They were already guaranteed a place in the kingdom of God. They thought that their birth into the Jewish race assured that Jesus said, “You need a new birth.” Well, this idea of a new birth or of being a new creation, or of having new life is a recurring theme in the New Testament. Paul in Romans 6:1-11, writes of dying with Jesus and rising anew. In 1 Corinthians 3:1-2, Paul referred to new believers as “newborn babes.” And in 2 Corinthians 5:17, he says that we’re a “new creation” when we are in Jesus. The apostle Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1:3 that we are “born anew by God’s great mercy.” And these are just a few instances. So when Jesus said this, Nicodemus’ answer in essence was, “What are you talking about? How is that even possible?” He knew that you couldn’t actually be born a second time like you were the first. So he might have meant, how can a man change who he is? How can you teach an old dog new tricks? And in answering Nicodemus, Jesus said for the second time, “I assure you.” The first time Jesus said, “I assure you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” And this time he begins again with, “I assure you.” And in saying this, Jesus is saying, “What I am telling you is true.” This is a fact. Listen up. This is important. I’m not messing around. Jesus wants Nicodemus to understand the gravity of what he’s saying. And then he elaborates. He isn’t saying a man has to change who he is or how he acts. He isn’t saying that the old dog has to learn new tricks. These are things that a man can do, but a man cannot with his own effort be born again. So Jesus told Nicodemus, “Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit.” So bringing about a new birth is only something that the Holy Spirit can do. Charles Spurgeon said it this way, “A man may cast away many vices, forsake many lusts in which he indulged, and conquer evil habits, but no man in the world can make himself to be born of God; though he should struggle ever so much, he could never accomplish what is beyond his power. And, mark you, if he could make himself to be born again, still he would not enter heaven, because there is another point in the condition which he would have violated — ‘unless a man be born of the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’” And then Jesus said, “Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again.” You see, Nicodemus seems to have been incredulous that he needed to be born again. He thought that of all people, surely he had the right to enter the kingdom of God. He was a member of the Sanhedrin, after all, a religious leader, an educated man, and he seems to be an honest and well-intentioned man. But these words, “You must be born again,” as Bible commentator Leon Morris said, “for ever exclude the possibility of salvation by human merit. Man’s nature is so gripped by sin that an activity of the very Spirit of God is necessary if he is to be associated with God’s kingdom.” Beloved, we are absolutely unable to remake ourselves sufficiently to be accepted by God. No matter how hard we try to learn new habits, refine our language, give to charity, attend the right church, or associate with the right people, we cannot earn entrance to God’s kingdom. We must be born again. It’s the only way. So how do we become born again? Here’s what Jesus told Nicodemus, “The Son of Man must be lifted up so that everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life. For God loved the world in this way, He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life, For God did not send His Son into the world that He might condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. Anyone who believes in Him is not condemned. But anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.” So that’s it. When we believe in Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, we’re born again. What does that mean to believe in Jesus? Well, it doesn’t mean that we believe that he existed. It doesn’t mean that we believe what he said about himself. It means that we put our faith in him, we put our trust in him. It means we put him at the steering wheel of our life. For some, maybe most, that can be a difficult proposition, to hand that kind of control over to somebody else is kind of scary. But Jesus is not just someone else. Jesus is God. We read in the first chapter of John that nothing that has been made was made without him. In other words, Jesus made all that is including you. So don’t you think that he might just be able to handle your life better than you? Then did I mention that he loves you? And since he loves you, don’t you think that he has good things in mind for you? Of course, he does. There are no better hands to put your life into than his. And if you have not yet invited him into your life, he’s standing at the door right now knocking, waiting for you to ask him in. Now is the time. Today is the day of salvation, right now. Are you ready to start a new life, to be born again? Pray with me now. Dear Jesus, I believe you are who you said you are. I believe that you are the Son of God, that you are God. And I believe that you came to die in my place for my sins and rose from the dead on the third day. I know that I’m a sinner and I’m sorry. I turn from my sins now, and I asked you to make me a new person. Jesus, I’m asking you to be the Lord of my life right now. Thank you for hearing me, Jesus. And thank you for loving me. Amen. Well, if you prayed that and meant it, then you’ve been born again. You heard Jesus’ words for yourself just a few minutes ago, you can rely on them. He said it. That settles it. You’re now a new person with a new life. Welcome to the family. Now, to help you get started on the right foot, I would love to send you a copy of the New Believer’s Bible. It’s a New Testament with hundreds of notes in it tailored for new believers. And right now you’re one of the newest Christians around. I want to send it to you for free, no strings. Just send me an email at st***@*************ia.com and tell me that you prayed that prayer with me. Let me know your mailing address and I’ll send it right off to you. Of course, I will not share your info with anybody. And I won’t put you on a list or spam you. If you have a comment, call the Lifespring Family Hotline at +1-951-732-8511, or go to comment.lifespringmedia.com, or comment via boostagram. Tomorrow will be Epistles Sunday and our reading will be 1 Timothy 1 through 4.

Steve Webb 21:35
Anonymous came in today with their weekly $33.33 donation. Thank you very much, Anonymous. God bless you. And Michael Haner came in with his weekly Stryper donation of $7.77. Thank you, Michael. God bless you. Boostagram. Boost. And a Fountain user came in today with 5000 sats. It’s the Lovely Lady LeeAnn. She sent the boostagram on the “Proverbs 16: Learning to Be Wise” episode she said, “Hi, sweetie.” Hello. “My prayer,” she says, “is that God helps me gain more wisdom and share it when asked.” And she put a laughing face there. “And to be wise enough to keep my mouth shut when not called upon. Thanks for your devotion to sharing God’s word with us. A wonderful way to begin my day!” Well, thank you, Sweetheart. God bless you, too. Beloved, if you receive something of value from the Lifespring! One Year Bible, please prayerfully consider returning some of that value to help keep the show coming to you. For more information on that go to

Steve Webb 22:46
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Steve Webb 22:47
Thanks to Sister Denise, Michael Haner, Scott Snider, Jason Paschall who did today’s show art, and Sister Brittaney. And thank you to Anonymous and Michael Haner and the Lifespring family members who stream sats and send boosts for helping to make this episode possible. Thanks for being with me today. May God bless you richly. My name is Steve Webb. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai