Beginning of Jesus’ ministry

Jesus ministry begins on a Passover celebration and will culminate with His crucifixion three years later on Passover. The Feast of Unleavened Bread is an eight day celebration that begins with Passover. Leaven is a symbol of sin. Jewish families would remove all of the leaven from their homes prior to the start of the feast. This is symbolic of their desire to remove sin from their lives. Jesus’ action in clearing the unscrupulous merchants and money changers is His effort to “remove the leaven” from His Father’s house. Jesus knew sin reigned in the hearts of men and so He put His trust and hope only in His Father (John 2:25).

Jesus encounter with Nicodemus includes the most well-known verse in the Gospels, John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.” Jesus explains that we must be “born again.” The Greek word anóthen may be translated as “again” or “from their origin” or “from above, from heaven.” While Jesus is referring to our need for a spiritual birth Nicodemus misunderstands and asks how he could “enter his mother’s womb a second time?” Just as we experience birth at the start of our physical life, we must be “born of…the Spirit” to experience our spiritual life both in the present and throughout eternity.

Our new birth comes from believing that Jesus died for ours sins. Forgiveness of sins give us a new spiritual birth and allows us to relate to God as our heavenly Father. John 3:17 tells us, “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him.” Jesus explains that just as obedient faith in looking at the bronze serpent that Moses raise in the wilderness when the people were bitten by poisonous snakes healed them and prevented physical death (Numbers 21:6-9). So having faith in what Jesus was to do by being “lifted up” on a cross would save all people from spiritual death. When we are dead spiritually we cannot enjoy a relationship with God in this life or in eternity. Hell is eternal separation for God – it is spiritual death.

Even as Jesus was beginning His ministry, John continued his ministry. John continued calling people to repentance and to know that the Messiah (Jesus) was among them. John was humble, “He must increase but I must decrease” (John 3:10). His humility is in stark contrast to our tendency to make celebrities out of popular religious leaders. John repeatedly told his listeners that Jesus was “from heaven” and is “above all” (John3:31, 32). John affirms that what Jesus was teaching was true, “For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God” (John 3:34). Truly, “The one who believes in the Son has eternal life; but the one who does not obey the Son will not see life …” (John 3:36).