How To Study The Bible
Vern Peterman · Jun 2, 2002
How to Study Bible (2001-02), No. 35
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262243356880

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Alright, a few things to cover before we get your inputs on what you found out in the way of ten more observations on John 3, verse 4. One thing is, remember we talked about study Bibles. And you were mentioning some kind of difficulties with study Bibles. Let me summarize briefly.

Some of the difficulties with study Bibles being that they can be kind of biased in one direction, and if you use that as your kind of sole commentary, you can end up whatever the study Bible bias is, that's what you get. Another difficulty with the study Bibles is that people sometimes look at the notes in the study Bible as being as inspired as the text itself. you know, isn't the case. What are some advantages of studying Bibles? What are some good things about them? They make it a little easier to study itself a little easier. Some of the work is done better. Right. In other words, instead of hopping around between a bunch of different books and things like that, you may have it right there. So it's real convenient and quick. What's another advantage?

Some of their notes touch on things that might have come through my mind while I've been reading in the same area. OK. And it may sometimes help solidify or clarify my mind on a particular issue, or it might give me another different viewpoint. So that kind of inquiry for me, I like. Sometimes I get so analytical studying parts of the Bible that I'm just forced to put it through easy. A lot of commentaries can help you get back to the big picture of what it's all about instead of just choking up microscopic details. Okay, so study the Bible. It might help you get some perspective on a passage and that kind of thing. They might give you an insight that could be helpful, maybe something you hadn't thought of.

So there's some pluses and minuses, aren't there? I have several of them, so I'm not going to tell you. By all means, go out and get one. But the flip side is you want to know what the pluses and minuses are and not get so caught up in all the pluses that you lose the disadvantages where you get kind of myopic because of them. So use them to advantage. Just remember they're not the whole picture.

So they can be handy. It's an interesting to me that I talk to the old middle of my ground. This kind of subject comes up, but they always kind of say, you know, use one, go to Young's, go to one of the more literal versions and kind of forget some of these deep commentaries. You don't do a lot of notes. So, I mean, that is kind of good advice. I mean, it also puts all the work back on yourself. Yeah, it's. It's interesting, you need to be able to use tools.

Have you ever seen one of these tools that claims to do ten different tools? And what it ends up doing is, yeah, it's real handy, but it doesn't do anything as well as the ten tools it's supposed to replace, right? And that's kind of the same thing with some of these study Bibles and some of the other things that are out there. If you try to make them do something they're not supposed to do, they just don't do very well.

It's just something to keep in mind. It's a perspective. As they're using things, people, for example, will look at a bunch of different English translations. Something I have to tell you is that, for example, if something, and we've covered this before, but if something is a paraphrase, it means it's already, somebody's kind of chewed it over, and you're getting very much of their bias, and you're getting farther away from the original text. Furthermore, a lot of translators have have what they call translation tradition. They are reluctant to change a translation from how it has been translated. So if there is a limitation in how things have been translated in the past, the tendency is to continue that limitation.

So just things to keep in mind. Yeah, Tom? I'm afraid so. One of the things that happens is that They try to economize with words, and sometimes it just takes multiple words to express what's behind a particular word or set of words in the original language. And economizing ends up chopping out what could be better understanding. In order to keep the Bible from getting real bulky, they have to go shaving down the words. In Psalms, the extra words would be helpful. Yes. Oh yeah, yes. We're thankful the scribes didn't do it. Joanne. Yes. I have the Amplified Bible. I used to use it a lot. Now I rarely use it. The Amplified Bible was an attempt at trying to convey more shades of meaning.

Here's where I think they fell short. And that is what they'll tend to do is they'll put in about 10 words instead of the original. But the problem is that a lot of times just listing what something means in all its different shades doesn't tell you what it means in context. And there's the limitation.

I've given examples. If I use the word ditch, you don't know whether I mean that that's this, you know, swale by the side of the road, or whether I'm telling you to get rid of something. If I use the word bow, you don't know whether I'm talking about this thing on my glasses, or the thing you shoot arrows with, or the thing that's up in the sky when it rains. You don't know except for the context.

And with the Amplified Bible, I think sometimes they list a great many things, and some of those shouldn't be there. Yes, Tom? Yes. In other words, sometimes more words can be helpful, but more words may not be helpful if all it does is generalize something that was intended to be specific. See the difference there? More words help if they help communicate the full range of something. But if they throw ambiguity into something that was specific, you go backwards instead of forwards.

Anyway, now, something else I want to cover before we jump into getting your ten points, and that is something we looked at a little bit ago. This truly I say unto you, or I say to you, or the King James, I think it's verily, verily. And notice it shows up, here's all these places in Matthew where that shows up. Here's Mark and in Luke. And then John's pattern is truly, truly, where he uses a double. and all those places.

And we notice that pattern of speech is only in the Gospels. And you only hear Christ saying it. So, interesting pattern. When you look at these, what is Jesus saying? This is a true saying. This is a pivotal truth. This is something you can count on. Look at Paul's equivalent You see this?

It is a trustworthy statement, is the way Paul says it, and notice he has that pattern. Who does he use it with? Timothy and Titus. He only uses that phrase, and here he has written all these books in the New Testament, he only uses that phrase in the pastoral epistles, mostly with Timothy, and one instance with Titus, and his phrasing with Titus is a little different Timothy, it is a trustworthy statement. Titus, this is a trustworthy statement.

Very similar. But that word that's translated trustworthy, some translations may have it as faithful. The Greek word is pistos, and it basically means believable. This is believable. And not believable just in the sense of it's credible. It's something in which you can put your personal trust. See that? That's the emphasis there. It's Paul's way of saying, I'm telling you a lot of things, but this is something you need to hinge everything on. You see the distinction there? It's Paul's way of laying it out.

Let's take, for instance, through the book of Revelation, does John use a somewhat similar pattern? What does he use to talk about something that's true? Have you caught on to that one? In the book of Revelation? What does John use when he wants to say this is something true? What's that? Amen. Amen, and you will see that. And actually, it's been pointed out that when Jesus says, truly, truly, that's amen, amen, okay? And that comes from the Hebrew.

What John says repeatedly, my recollection is some 50 times, is, I saw. And a couple times, I heard. And John, in the first chapter, he uses words that were legal terms in an affidavit. And so then everything that he says is basically witness-type statements. He's writing as if it were a legal document. And the first half of the first chapter is like a notary affidavit from the time.

And so he comes off the rest of Revelation, he keeps saying, I saw, I saw, I saw. And a couple times when he gives a number, he says, I heard the number of it. So he's really big on witnessing and testifying truly about what he witnesses. Really interesting. Yeah, question? Do you think that maybe in part a reaction to his denial? I'm sorry, that was Peter, never mind. My brain had to get in gear here.

There was a kind of denial going on in some heresies that were hot stuff at the time, so I guess he had to be forceful. First John is a letter written later in the New Testament era. And it was at a time when what was called Gnosticism was starting to come to the surface.

So he starts off 1 John with a lot of the same words he uses in Revelation. He says, I'm telling you about what we saw and heard. And he uses, again, witness kinds of verbiage that spell out, I saw it, I heard it, I touched it. In the beginning of 1 John, starts off just with those same kinds of words.

This is a guy who is wanting to tell you and wanting you to know that what he is saying is verifiably true and accurate and not just something he cooked up, this isn't some little myth, some little story. But it's related to real world reality. These aren't people on drugs. This isn't a hallucination. This is something actually witnessed by eye and by ear and by sense. Good. Alright, now, what things have you noticed about John chapter 3 verse 4? What kind of things have you come up with? Cheryl?

Well, I was thinking that Nicodemus in his response to Jesus saying that you must be born again, but you cannot see the kingdom of heaven. You can't be born again, or if you're not born again. Nicodemus, he didn't even mention, well why can't I see this? It was all this physical aspect of going back and trying to find your mother. Yeah, he never said, why can't I see?

Let me ask this question. Was Nicodemus' response sarcastic? Sincere and questioning? Puzzled? Was he thinking out loud? How do you read that when you read what Nicodemus says in 3, 4? I might go with sarcasm. Okay, you think there's some sarcasm in the way he's saying it. Okay, Tom? I think Nicodemus was playing off of a record player and Jesus was hitting him with the CD. Okay, so Nicodemus you think was playing off a record player.

This is the stuff we always crank out. Anybody else? He was familiar with that born again sequence because that's what they used. Yes, there were various instances when they used that term, born again. Pardon? Alright, alright, and where did you read that? Okay, alright, one of the commentaries that we handed out here. And to make sure we use Helmut's correction, Edersheim, in the life and times of Jesus and Messiah, Spells that out.

He's actually the one who first laid that out They they would a bride and a bridegroom when they were first married. They would they would use that phrase born again It's basically this is like life starts over They would use it of a chief Rabbi who is being elevated to the head of an Academy, you know, so there's several instances of And as Winnie pointed out, a proselyte from the Gentile world coming into the Jewish world would be said to be born again. So here's all these born-again type statements. We talk about, oh, I'm born again.

So this isn't an unusual phrase. It's just Nicodemus thinking of it in the way Jesus used it was somehow different. Okay, alright. What else did people notice? There was a strong undercurrent that Nicodemus, I'm sure, was beginning to feel that, uh, hey, he's talking about me. Okay, yeah, he was taking this possibly personally. He was speaking in sort of generic terms, but you still get the sense of, you know, Jesus is possibly pointing at him. from how can he be born again, born when he is old? And I think he was thinking more of himself because of that.

Ah, yes. Because to be on the Sanhedrin, you can't be a youngster. So, you're speaking generically, how can a man be born when he is old? And incidentally, that word old, That's the only place in the whole New Testament that that word is used. Isn't that interesting? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

A typical word for elder would be presbyteros, and that's used elsewhere, but that's not the word that was used here. This is not just an elder, this is an old man. Okay, anything else that people caught up with here? What else did you see? Well, I think also the Doctrine of Regeneration got involved in that and they were not understanding that we had to be born again of the Spirit. They were thinking materially.

Okay. Alright. Yeah. Excellent point. Let's put ourselves into Nicodemus' mindset. Aside from anything Jesus had said, what would the average Jew think was necessary for him to see the Kingdom of God? You've got to do this, you've got to do that, and then maybe, maybe it will all come together. Okay. You've got to keep the law, and what else? Anything else? The sacrifices? Sacrifices were good, that was part of the law.

The facts of where they came from. Ah, okay. The right genetics, that's a real important thing. Right genetics, you've got to have that. One of the things you'll see Paul warning about more than once in his letters is this keeping of endless genealogies.

People are all concerned about making sure that they've got it established that they're descended from Abraham, because that's their ticket in, right? You're going to see the Kingdom of God because you've got the right genealogy. You're going to see the Kingdom of God because you keep all the laws. You're going to see the Kingdom of God because you go to Jerusalem for all these different feasts and festivals. So, if you hang around Jerusalem, of course that's even better, right?

So here's the mindset now. So Jesus comes and uses this word anophon, which means born again or above, from above. And actually, in this instance, I think Jesus was using both meanings together. Born again from above. And Nicodemus' thinking was all on what level? physical, material, that's all he's thinking is what are the material elements. Let's see, I've got the right genealogy, I'm doing all the right stuff, and Jesus comes and says we've got to be born again.

Now think of how they use that phrase born again. I'm not getting married, I'm not being a king. How does this fit? He's trying to figure it out. And the Jewish mindset is, if it's not genealogy, it must be something I do. Yes, Tom? And maybe he might have got some sort of feeling that this is as high as I'm going to get. I'm not going to become a chief priest. I'm not going to be anything more. It is less now. Nothing.

Yeah, what else can I do? And that's a part of it. Nicodemus is probably, at this point, You know, he's saying there's something about this Jesus guy, and then Jesus comes and says this. It's like, yeah, what else can I do? There's a record of a Nicodemus who was apparently high up in Jewish society and very wealthy, and we've already talked about the Jewish idea of if you're wealthy, you know, that means that God's blessed you because you're a good guy. I mean, everything about this guy he was in. He was going to see the Kingdom of God by any measure. As a matter of fact, the Jews would have thought, if this guy isn't going to see the Kingdom of God, nobody is. So what does Jesus tell them? You've got to be born again. And He goes down the list of all the things that born again means and nothing fits. So what's He thinking? He's starting to grasp at straws here.

How do I solve this? What do I do? I'm already married. He doesn't know what to do with this. So he's asking this question. You know, it is tough to know exactly what was he thinking. Was this sarcasm? Is he thinking out loud? Is he just kind of going through the alternatives and thinking, maybe I haven't thought of one?

How are you going to be born back into your, you know? Yeah. But even if it was sarcasm, even if he was totally lost at this point, you know that he's continuing to observe the ministry of Jesus through the three years and that his heart has been affected if by nothing else well of course he had to because he was a Pharisee but when you turn back to chapter 19 and you see that he was there at the crucifixion that he was participating in dealing with Jesus one after the other so something had an effect here Yeah, yeah, he was getting definitely pulled. To begin thinking like this, something's pulling him. Tom? I get some feeling that maybe, well, he was kind of like one of the FBI agents.

He was told to put a tail on Jesus, and neutralize him in some non-ultimate method. But he's been on his tail for so long, even before he was told to do it, there had to have been something more to it than just, oh yeah, this is my first time to ever see Jesus, this is the first time I ever heard about Jesus. I was only given this brief from a teletype and here I am on the scene. Nope, there was more than that. Think about this for a minute.

This Nicodemus, if you were to ask any Jew, because apparently he was well known, if you were to ask any Jew that had any kind of circulation around Jerusalem and Judea and those parts, if you were to ask any Jew, is Nicodemus going to see the Kingdom of God? What do you think would be their answer? There would be absolutely no reason by any criteria that they had that Nicodemus would fall short of that. Not even in the least. There wouldn't be any hesitation. If anybody's going to make it, Nicodemus is going to make it. Yeah? It would be akin to today saying, well, do you think Billy Graham's going to go to heaven? And the answer would be, is the Pope Catholic.

Yeah, we have expressions like that, don't we? It's like, it goes with the category. It goes without saying. And we have expressions like that Some of them recruit, but we have expressions like that that talk about, you know, this automatically fits with the category. But let's ask this question.

Would Nicodemus come to Jesus if he personally was 100% convinced that he was going to see the kingdom? Ah, isn't that interesting? Think about that. If he was really, truthfully in his heart, 100% convinced of it, personally, I don't get the sense that he would have come to Jesus. That there was something about his own life that was something about Jesus' life. He may not have been able to put his finger on it, but he was asking questions. He must have had some level of doubt to come to Jesus and even ask these things.

Because everybody else in Israel would have said, hey, this guy's there. He's already arrived. If anything, everybody else would come to Nicodemus and ask the questions. So here's this guy asking questions, and first thing Jesus says, well, as a matter of fact, he doesn't have answers for, he comes out with more questions.

And the question that he asks Jesus, actually two of them, the questions that he asks are based on his coming to Jesus, he must have had some doubts. But his questions are also fully in line with the Jewish mindset of the time, as well as the Jewish understanding that if something is going to be done, it's going to be done physically. Because that was the level on which they thought. If you're going to be righteous, it's because you did it.

If it's going to happen, it's because I did it myself. You know, it's all these things we even adopt in our own culture. I'd rather do it myself, you know. If you want something done right, do it yourself. All those things just built into this Jewish mindset. I'm going to do it myself. It's going to be physically. I'm going to do it.

Even with that cloud of yourself, you go back to Romans, because that which may be known of God is manifest in them that God has shown to them. has to refer to all mankind. So it's built within man to know the truth. And I think that's why it's important. Ah, yes.

There is this sense that somehow this isn't getting there. Jesus called out the hypocrisy of the scribes and the Pharisees. Nicodemus, however, preceded that by quite a bit of time. So he recognizes something doesn't square up. He says, I'm doing everything right. I'm everything that a Jewish man should be. And yet, he sensed within himself that he did not square up with things. You can imagine, who knows, he may have heard Jesus say things like, if you've committed adultery in your heart, you've done it. But the Pharisees, everything is physical. It's what you do on the outside of the accounts, right?

Let's take a look at, this is from the complete Word Study New Testament, where we've got the codes and the numbers and all that. And I just want to take a quick look at this and then look at, this is verse 3. This is, as Chuck pointed out here, verily, verily is actually amen, amen, which is, that's a Hebrew term. Basically it's true, true. And then, This word born, notice that number, 1080. We're going to see it in the next verse. What's that? Yes, that's one thing.

The word born, as we'll see here, is the same word in each one. He didn't change words or something. There are times when people look to the Greek to resolve something that the Greek can't resolve. The Greek isn't going to give you some special answer. It must be a different word for born. No, it isn't. It's the same word.

It's this word here, this anophon, that raises the questions and makes the head scratch. One of the things that was pointed out, this cannot, it's interesting, it isn't just like can and cannot. This is the word dynamis in the negative. And people a lot of times will say, Denonymous, we get our word dynamite from that. And they think of power and they think of something explosive. The basic idea of the word is ability. So it just means not able. Not able. That's the sense.

And then this kingdom of God phrase is actually one that John does not use but a few times. Frequently he just shortens it. And most Jews just said the kingdom. A lot, you'll hear that phrase, the kingdom. That's what we read in Acts 1-6. The disciples asked Jesus, are you ready to establish the kingdom?

And we use that a lot too, where we'll speak in shorthand because we know that one word stands for a whole bunch of other things. Just like the example we gave earlier. Do you believe in the second coming? I don't have to say second coming of Christ. prior to the millennium, I don't have to explain all that because it's understood. Same thing here.

Okay, now, given that, now we go into this verse that we're looking at here. Here's Nicodemus, and do you remember what Nicodemus' name means? What's that? It basically means ruler of or victorious over the people. So even his name is up there, right? And then here's something to notice. What's this code here, PIN? What does that code tell us about this?

Present indicative. So it's the usual sense, barring something in context that tells you otherwise, the usual sense of present indicative is right now continuing. So you wouldn't say, Nicodemus said, some of your translations may say that, the actual Greek is saying, Nicodemus is saying. Which gives a sense, almost, that John was there writing. Almost like our slang, and then he says. Yes, yeah. But this is the way it comes across. Yep. Says unto him. Yep.

How can a man, now is this man male or man, you know, like mankind general? Which one is it? Yes, Anthropos would be the general, you know, mankind kind of statement, and Aeneir, would be the word for specifically male. He's speaking very generally, isn't he? It's interesting how generic he's making his question. Out there, here's his real general statement. He didn't say, how can I? but just real general. And even his introduction to Jesus is we. So he doesn't speak this personally, but yet you get the sense that he's thinking of it personally. And notice we said that word born, remember?

1080? Same word. It's not different. Question? Is there another way for them to say born? To have a different... Good question. I haven't explored that one. This is the usual word for born. And as far as I'm aware, any other usage is by adding another word in this case instead of having a different word, so far as I've seen. I've done some exhaustive study on that, but that's the general pattern. And then we noted when he is old. And this word old here, that's the only time in the whole New Testament that that word shows up. He didn't use the usual word for elder. Presbyteros didn't use that word.

Notice can here. What is that word can? Dunamis. Have the ability. Does he have the ability? To enter, now here's something to take note of. It says the second time. Is that what your King James Version, anybody have a King James Version, that what it says? The second time with the article? Yeah. Yeah, and that's something to notice here. This little code here, AN, means it's what? It's called anarthrus, which means there's no definite article there.

So it's actually Actually, a second time would be a better rendering than the second time, okay? So, a second time. But what Nicodemus is trying to work at in terms of clarity is Jesus had used this word anophon, which can mean born again, born from above, and he is asking his question using the physical assumption, but he's saying, do you mean being physically born a second time. So he uses a different phrase in order to try to bounce this off of Jesus and get at, what are you saying? What's that? Yeah, what do you mean? Here's a word that can go both ways. Which one of those meanings do you intend? You see that? So he's kind of bouncing it off of him with a question. Which one of these meanings do you have in mind here?

But it's interesting, the one he goes to is the physical sense of things. He doesn't even go to the spiritual sense. Tom? Perhaps Nicodemus thinks I'm going to throw him in the water. Oh, he comes back out like Super Bowl. And he says, yeah, maybe I'll get it. But I think ultimately he's trying to get this thing cleared up because Jesus is using a word that could be understood both ways. And I believe that Jesus was actually intending to convey both meanings, and Nicodemus was oriented towards the physical sense of born again physically. Born a second time, physically. The word enter, if you look at that, I started to work on that a little bit. Okay, and what did you find out about it? I didn't. Okay, you got hung up on it?

But it's the same enter as in enter the kingdom. Well, here, we can take a look. Oh, no, that's C in the next one, so I'd have to look it up, but I don't have it on the overheads. Yeah, same one. 1525, enter. Yeah. Yeah, icericomi. I circle my, come into. Okay?

He's saying very much, go into. As a matter of fact, then he uses this into. It's like, can I, from where I am at, when I am old, enter into my mother's womb? It's almost like, okay, you said this, Jesus. Does this make sense? Can this possibly be what you're saying? Yeah.

And it doesn't click for him. He's old. Of course, then the other possibility is by the time you're old, your mother's not even around. Is it possible that Nicodemus is throwing back at Jesus what appears to be not only a practical but a logical impossibility?

You can't possibly mean this. And enter into his mother's womb and be born. Same word, born. I'm sorry, what? And he doesn't. He doesn't need to go back into your mother's womb. Right. Right. Right. Back into a corner. Where else could he go? Yeah. Nicodemus, in his Jewish mindset, is running out of options. And so he's going to this one that's impossibility, bouncing it back at Jesus. But can you imagine? Put yourself in Nicodemus' place.

He is coming to this person with obviously some doubts, in his own mind. And he's coming to this person and he's saying, this person lives in such a way it causes me to question how I live and the basis on which I live. And even the basis on which I enter the kingdom of God. And yet, there's a certain discomfort in what Jesus comes off initially saying. He's expressing that here.

He's like, I've gone in my mind down all the different options and none of those fit. Are you talking about this? It shows he was paying attention when Jesus was talking. So many people sit and listen and don't hear. At least some of it was soaking into it.

Yeah, he used some of the same words Jesus was using. And one of the things you'll notice as we go into the next verse is Jesus is going to feed back to him words that Nicodemus used and words that he used the first time in verse 5. He's going to build on the words that Jesus used before. He's also going to build on the words that Nicodemus used. You see that? And that's what you're to do next week. Take a look at verse 5 and look at what connects back into what was already said.

Because this is part of studying context, right? We come into this room and I can start using words with you because we've been using them. We build on prior context, don't we? If I say complete word study New Testament, you don't say, huh? You have a sense by now, what am I talking about? If I say the Greek, you know I mean the Greek New Testament. We have a language that we use based on prior context.

Nicodemus and Jesus are the same way, aren't they? What's happening with them is they've started using some words with each other And so now as Jesus comes back to him a second time, he's going to use words that he used before, and he's going to use words that Nicodemus used. And he's going to come back with some words to correct using what's been built upon. He's going to correct Nicodemus' misunderstanding. And he's got a real job, doesn't he?

Think of Nicodemus' mindset. How would you go about getting Nicodemus to think outside of what Nicodemus has been thinking. If you were in Jesus' shoes, how would you talk to Nicodemus to get him to thinking outside of, I'm descended from Abraham, we've got the law, Moses is the right guy, he gave it to us, we're doing all the right stuff, I'm wealthy, I'm an old man, I'm of the right gender, A Jewish male's prayer every day was, thank you, I'm not a woman or a gentile. He's got everything right, and yet he is questioning. Yeah, he's questioning, yeah. Question, Tom? Go ahead. I'm sorry, did I run past you? Okay. Okay. Yeah. I think it's amazing. Briefly, it's a bookmark by Leo. And in the dictionary, it's part of his complete work. He defines it, hollow, a cavity, specifically the abdomen, by implication, the matrix, and figuratively, the heart.

I had not thought about either the mother's heart or Jesus existing. Where would you say Jesus exists? You'd say he exists in the heart. You know what I'm saying? It's kind of an interesting... I never thought about being maternal birthed. You're really born in the mother's heart, you know what I'm saying? In terms of using the sex matrix.

But it makes, to me, There's a lot of truth or something. Excellent point. When we study, we have to do our best to climb into the mindset of the people receiving the message. And he brings up an excellent point. And that is that we think of these things as anatomically separate. Here's the mother's womb and here's the heart. The Jewish mindset is to put them together. Yes. The Jewish mindset is to put them together. This isn't just physically going back in. I'm going to have this descendancy from my mother. What's going on? It has to do with my mother's heart.

If you think of it in the Jewish mindset, and truthfully, while the understanding of other cultures may not come automatically to us, we can learn to understand them. because human beings have things in common. And frequently it's just a matter of understanding what the other culture thinks of as equal to our own. Some cultures, for example, Christ doesn't come into your heart, he comes into your liver. That's a different culture, but it's the same idea.

This is the understanding here. It isn't just, am I going to go back to my mother's womb? It's, am I going to go back into the heart of my mother? Interesting. A different perspective. Thanks for bringing that up. Yes, that's right, it's in there. Let's close and pray.

Lord, your word is indeed full of all kinds of riches, even drama, Lord, as we look at here. We can relate to some of the puzzlings and frustrations and even doubts that Nicodemus has expressed here. And it would appear from Scripture, Lord, that He eventually did come to a place of knowing you. But, Lord, as we look into Your Word, we're thankful that You use it, Lord, in our hearts and in our lives. You use it to teach us and to work in our own hearts. And we just ask that You would do that all the more. In Jesus' name, Amen.