The Ministry of the Spirit in John, Part 1: Jesus and the New Birth

There are two main points of this section of our study: the first is that Jesus inaugurates a new period of salvation history and replaces the temple; and the second main thing we want to look at is the nature of the new birth.

Viewing a church building as the house of the Lord is fine, as long as that doesn’t produce a deficient view of what it means to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit. If we are the temple and the presence of God is in us, is a building the house of God?

1. Jesus Replaces the Temple, John 1 and 2 (John 1:14, John 1:32, John 1:51; John 2:13–25)

The word became flesh and tabernacled with us. The word became flesh and dwelled among people. Just as the spirit came down to inhabit the temple of Solomon, the spirit came as a dove to Christ, the same spirit comes to Christians.

In the clearing of the temple, Jesus drove out animals that were necessary for sacrifice. Later, He would become the sacrifice. In verse 17-22, we see this:

His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

What is this house of the Lord?

Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

There was a historical shift taking place here. The presence of God was being removed from the temple and placed into the Body of Jesus, who is God. This all leads up to John 3.

2. The Nature of the New Birth, John 3 and 6 (John 3:3–8, John 6:63)

verse 3: unless you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God.
verse 5: unless you are born again, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. Jews who had lived outside of Israel felt unclean for it and were washed before they would re-enter.
verse 8: we don’t cause the wind to blow nor do we control it. Those who the spirit causes to be reborn will believe and we cannot affect the working of the spirit.

Whether you believe this or not will affect how you approach your ministry. If you believe that you can control the spirit of God, you will invent your own ministry methods. If you believe that God will cause those to be reborn despite you, you will minister in ways He has ordained.

3. Jesus Brings a New Age, John 4 and 5 (John 4:21–24; John 5:25)

John 6:63-69
“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is of no avail. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

Jesus told the woman that people would no longer worship at the temple because that is no longer where the presence of God was to be found.

4. Jesus Puts an End to Sacrifice, John 7, 16, and 19 (John 7:37–39; John 16:7; John 19:30)

John 7:39
Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

By glorified, Jesus is not speaking of his resurrection or ascension, but His crucifixion. The death of Christ is the revealing of the glory of God the Father for showing His absolute holiness and the glory of God the Son, who showed us His worthiness to carry our sin upon Him to place it under the curse of death.

The Spirit would not come to the people until the sacrificial system was ended and it only ended by the sacrifice of Christ. The temple was no longer the presence of God and no longer the place where sins could be atoned. These both became Jesus. Therefore, we must preach Christ and Him crucified, folly to the world, but the wisdom of God. This is the foundation that we build upon. We need to take care as we build that we follow the pattern of our foundation and not the pattern of our own desires.