Message Notes

Altered
2025.03.30
Week 5: Nicodemus

He [Nicodemus] came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs You are doing if God were not with him.”
John 3:1-2

Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
“How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time to be born?”
John 3:3-4

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit.

“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, and yet you people do not accept our testimony.
John 3:10-11

16For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16

For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
John 3:17-18

Does our law convict a man without first hearing from him to determine what he has done?
John 7:51

Nicodemus, who had previously come to Jesus at night, also brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds
John 19:39

[Video: Larry Sanger Skeptic to Christian]

The reason why there is a 2000 YR old tradition of theology is that the Bible withstands questioning.

Apologetics. Apologetics mean defense, or reasoned defense of religious beliefs, particularly Christianity.

Primary ways to measure historical accuracy:
• Time between event and manuscripts
• Number of manuscripts

“Comentarii de Bello Gallico”

24,000 copies of New Testament Manuscripts.

“The interval between the dates of original composition and the earliest manuscripts become so small as to be in fact negligible.” – Frederic Kenyon

Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

“Taking all the evidence together, it is not too much to say that there is no historic incident better or more variously supported than the resurrection of Christ. Nothing but the assumption that it must be false could have suggested the idea of deficiency in the proof of it.”

He was the Messiah.

On the third day he appeared to them restored to life.

16For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16

The reason why there is a 2000 YR old tradition of theology is that the Bible withstands questioning.