The Faith of the nobleman while weak does not realize that Christ can speak the word and heal the child. There is more than one miracle here. A new life passes into his own spirit, and he, too, bound in the death-grasp of formal religion, liveth! A Father's love has yearned for him. He came down indeed to save the child, to save you and me and to rescue us from the pit and crown us with loving devotion and compassion. Christ has come down ere the child died.

While the Jews were bickering about the healed man carrying his bed and walking, they failed to see and to understand that before their very eyes was the fulfillment of the Sabbath rest when the Lord Jesus removed the heavy load of sin and infirmity from the man. At Bethesda, in the House of Mercy, the Lord has shown His lovingkindness and tender mercies in saying “Take up your bed and walk” and with this comes the power to become Sons - the power to “Sin no more” In the House of Mercy we receive Strength to actively and rigorously vanquish sin in our lives.

The Father has been working, but now on the seventh day, in the rest of the Lord, the Father rests. It is now time for the Son to work. The “rest” of the Father is an infinite activity of wisdom and power, of righteousness and mercy in Jesus Christ. Remember that: the Father initiates creation and redemption. The Son redeems the creation, and The Holy Spirit regenerates and sanctifies, applying redemption to believers. So the Divine rest of God and Man is in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. God has rested. Now Man has to enter into this rest and cooperate with and utterly abandon himself to the will of God.

When God makes a request of you, it is because He has proposed to give to you. When he asks you to do something, it is because He has come to bless you. Will you obey, will you be ready, will you know the gift of God when the Lord says “Give to me”? Give to me your heart, give to me your affections, give me your all?

Jesus has come from Heaven and is speaking heavenly things, He is teaching about the Kingdom of God. He is preaching His Gospel. It was a message from the Father, brought by the Son Himself. But the world at large who have gone their own way, who are working after their own devices and forging their own path in the evil imaginations of their heart are not ready to receive the testimony of Jesus Christ.

John the Baptist is saying that God is the author of all that we receive. So John is content to see Jesus receive the greater honour that the Father bestowed on Him. So he says, “He must increase, but I must decrease”. These words are also instructive to us that are believers in Jesus Christ. All Glory must be to the Lord. We live our lives to the Glory of God alone (sola Gloriae Dei). He must increase, we must decrease.

The world is already under the axe of God's divine wrath, like a man already condemned on death row, sitting and waiting for the time of his execution. So Jesus says, "God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Perhaps no verse in the Bible has been the subject of the most sermons ever preached. But also, perhaps, it may be that this verse is the most seldom explained and often ignored. This may be one of those verses of scripture that the more you speak of it, the less you understand it. But the more you reflect on it, the meaning and fullness and profundity are more and more revealed, the sublime shines on us.

Jesus delivers His "magnum opus" to Nicodemus. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so, must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. The phrase "lifted up" is an important one in the Gospel. It carries a double meaning of crucifixion and exaltation. Christ's death on the cross, His resurrection and His glorification together reveal the Glory of God. The word "must" points to God's sovereign purpose. The crucifixion was the keystone of God's eternal plan to save His people.

The terms “Water” and “Spirit” are linked to express the pouring out of God’s Spirit on believers in the end times. It signifies the new life that flows from the arrival of the Messiah. In Isaiah 44:1-3 - “But now listen, O Jacob My servant, Israel, whom I have chosen. This is the word of the LORD, your Maker, who formed you from the womb and who will help you: “Do not be afraid, O Jacob My servant, Jeshurun (also means the upright one), whom I have chosen. For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and currents on the dry ground. I will pour out My Spirit on your descendants and My blessing on your offspring.”