John – Chapter 2:23—3:5
Outline: 2:23-3:2a 3:2b-3 3:4-8 3:9-15 3:16-21
Introduction, setting of the context First exchange (“amen, amen” 3:3) Second exchange (“amen, amen” 3:5) Third exchange (“amen, amen” 3:11) Preaching commentary by the evangelist
2:23-25 “many believed in His Name” – This passage is not merely transitional but connects the cleansing of the temple with the discourses with Nicodemus. The previous section is indicated by the repetition of “the Passover” (2:13,23) and the coming section by the “signs” (2:23; 3:2), the plurals “we” and “many,” “man” (2:25; 3:1), and pronoun “to Him” (3:2) referring back to 2:24. Also, the reference to “many” in John suggests that some Pharisees, i.e. “the Jews,” were following Jesus, too. Saving faith, as first defined in Melanchthon’s Loci Communes (1521), is nōtitia (the content of faith), assēnsus (conviction that the content of faith is true), and fiducia (trust and reliance). In John’s Gospel, the notitia is not simple knowledge of Jesus, His works, and His Word. For John, signs are given or done as revelations of Jesus’s true identity. To believe in the signs that Jesus does is to believe in that which the signs are signs. Like Moses (bronze snake, manna, water from the rock), these signs were given to reinforce Israel’s faith both in the God that delivered them from Egypt and Moses whom God sent. Here, the signs are given to show Jesus is the true and final redeemer of that Israel which is according to the Spirit. Nicodemus lacks saving faith because, while he has seen signs, his faith is incomplete and susceptible to danger and apostasy (6:66; 16:32). He lacks the notitia that is the “begetting from above” “from water and the Spirit” (3:3,5). It could be said that John’s emphasis is on the delivery of Jesus as the Lamb of God, the source of living water, reddened by the blood of the lamb (19:30-35). Faith is not an autonomous “thing” but receives that which is given (see also Romans 4–6). 3:3 “Unless one is begotten from above, he is not able to see the kingdom of God” Nicodemus coming at “night” is not incidental but connects this interaction with 19:39 as well as the Jews shared incomprehension that Jesus is the Christ, of whom the Torah spoke. Darkness is equated with blindness, thus to come to sight is to recognize Jesus as the Word, the Son of God…