Articles
A Teacher Come From God
A Teacher Come From God
Nicodemus appraisal of Jesus: John 3:1-2 1 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 have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him."
In my first trip to China, I met many students who had memorized the ‘7 Signs of John’ (have you learned these? See note below). They didn’t even have to use their fingers to count them off as they recited the list. Yet, knowing the list and believing the implication of them are two different things! We, like Nicodemus, need to understand and believe this implication!
This encounter seemingly comes early in the preaching of Jesus. John had only mentioned the signs in chapter two. It appears to me that there indeed were others that ‘were not written in this book’, but apparently known by Nicodemus.
The question is what to make of such signs. As signs, they ‘point’ to some other truth. This Nicodemus correctly notes is that no one could do such unless God was ‘with Him’. Such a statement acknowledges that God was confirming His teaching by providing such miracles. This was the conclusion of the blind man in chapter 9 of John (9:33). This is the conclusion that John points us two in his conclusion of John 20:30-31.
This is the problem faced by the Jewish leaders as they rejected Jesus teaching! Their approach to the problem was to just ignore it. They made several feeble attempts to deny that such were done, but such attempts failed in the face of evidence as these were done publicly and were witnessed by many peoples. Hence, Peter’s first sermon includes this implication: "Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know—” (Acts 2:22).
What is YOUR reaction to such miracles? What is your response to the witness of John (and the many disciples of the 1st century? “These are written that you might believe, and believing, you might have life.” Are you believing?
Hugh DeLong
The 7 signs: Changing water into wine (2:1–11), Healing the official’s son (4:46–54), Healing the invalid (5:1–15), Feeding the multitude (6:5–13), Walking on the water* (6:16–21), Healing the man born blind (9:1–7), and Raising Lazarus (11:1–44). Of course, there is the EIGHTH – the resurrection of Jesus!
