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He is saying that the Kingdom of God is a spiritually discerned kingdom. He is also teaching that there must be a spiritual rebirth for one to enter The Kingdom. One must turn around, away from their old life, and toward Jesus and the things of God in order to be admitted. Nicodemus doesn't fully understand yet because he hasn't had it fully explained to him yet. Nicodemus is still stuck in the natural and Jesus has moved on to the spiritual.

That it is a spiritual kingdom that can only be entered by spiritual means. It is also only accessed on a personal level. You are not granted entrance because of your ethnicity. No. The question he asks shows that he doesn't understand. Nicodemus speaks of a physical birth, not understanding that Jesus speaks purely of a spiritual rebirth.

He teaches us that the Kingdom of God is the most valuable thing in the universe; more valuable than anything we can imagine. One reason is that it is not tangible now to our human senses. We can't see, hear, smell, feel or taste it in any physical way but lots of other stuff we think of as valuable is right there in front of us competing for our time and attention. To stay focused on the things of God and on the promises of God in Scripture. We can ask God for help in understanding and for strength and support to help us in our carnal weakness. He will gives us these and more through His Holy Spirit. It can show them that none of us can do these things in our own power. It can model a daily walk with our Savior that is yielded to His will.

Because our salvation is an undeserved gift given by the grace of God, not merited by any works of our own hands. Because Jesus loves the man, as he loves everyone, so much that we can't really even understand it. Because Jesus wants the man in the Kingdom with Him, just as He wants everyone to share that fellowship. Because the only way to the Kingdom is by following Jesus. To be able to walk day by day with the human incarnation of the creator and ruler of the universe? WOW! In a way, everyone since that time has been offered the same thing, but he would have been able to actually walk through life, be taught by and interact with the actual person of Jesus. Unlike us, who follow Jesus through His and others teaching in the Word of God, this man was offered the opportunity to be able to follow Jesus by simply walking behind Him, living in intimate fellowship with Him. Because he can't fully submit himself to the Lord. He can't bear to lose his money, power, status, etc. for what Jesus is promising.

I believe that Jesus knew that the mans wealth had become his god. He was in the position of serving money instead of the money serving him. Wealth, and the pursuit of it, was the most important thing in his life. He was in perpetual violation of the first commandment, to have no other god but God. Because it seems (and is) so radical and uncompromising. Because we have areas that we are reluctant to give up. We have things that come between us and true submission to God. We do not want to believe that these things are sins. That it is very easy to let the pursuit and accumulation of wealth take over your life. It isn't a sin to BE wealthy, it's a sin to let that wealth come between you and God. Jesus said that you can't serve God and money, so the challenge is to be sure that money is a tool for you and your ministry, not the other way around.

The main thing they have in common is that a person in each found something very valuable and gave everything they had to possess it. The point is that entrance to the Kingdom of Heaven is so valuable that we should be willing to give all we have to gain it, and we should remove any thing or behavior from our life that might be an obstacle to attaining it. The things we value most should be the things of God. Our lives should be lived to reflect our values. That we serve the Lord should be apparent by the way we live, the choices we make and so on.

When the time comes, there will be no further opportunity to get right with God. Wherever you are at that moment in your relationship with God, that is where you will be eternally. Those who are prepared will be saved. Those who are unprepared will be lost. It won't matter how close someone is to another who is saved, if their hearts are not in the proper condition, they are subject to judgement. It is pretty much the same as at the time of each of our deaths. They will have doomed themselves to live forever apart from God in the eternal fire and punishment that is hell. It should have the effect on our lives of making us motivated to be sure we are living a life that is pleasing to God. Our testimony should include an explanation of how we came to realize our sinfulness and opposition to God, the reasons why we came to admit that we need a Savior, and the reality of God's judgement. In this way we can tell others how important it is for them to think about these issues and make a decision concerning their own lives. If we do indeed love our neighbors (everyone who share this world together), we should be extremely motivated to share the whole gospel with them. They need to know that sin is real, and hateful to God. They need to know in their own hearts that they are sinful and subject to God's judgement for that. They need to know that the penalty for sin is eternity in hell. And most importantly, they need to know that there is a Savior who will pay their penalty for them if they ask. If we love our neighbors, we should be trying to make sure they have all this information so that they have the chance to escape the impending day of wrath.

He compares the day of His return to the days when the flood came and God rained down destruction on Sodom and Gomorrah. Everyone had been warned, but they didn't know the exact timing. Most chose to ignore the warnings and go on with their normal lives. When the judgment struck, only those who had been living in readiness were not caught in the destruction. Our attitude should be one of readiness and waiting expectantly for the Day of the Lord to come at any time. Our lives should be lived in readiness for the event to happen. We should have our hearts right with God. We should be living a life of obedience and submission to Him that leaves no doubt that Jesus is our Lord and Savior. We should be striving to never let the things of this world take our attention from the things of God.

God walked the earth in human form! As He preached and taught and traveled, He gathered disciples who learned to love and revere Him as Lord of their lives. His exercise of God's power and the disciples' submission to His sovereignty in their lives were manifestations of the Kingdom of God. First and foremost, God's Kingdom is here today because of the empty tomb in Jerusalem on that first easter morning! Jesus defeated death, and the grave, and sin, and Satan on that day. His Kingdom is a reality now in my heart and my life, and the hearts and lives of all believers. We have all been indwelt by the Holy Spirit. We have God with us to guide us each step of the way. The Kingdom of God is here in our obedience to His rule, in our submission to His sovereignty over our lives, just as it was with the disciples in the first century.

I believe that He is telling us that we need to strive to be "no-compromise"-type people. We need to see sin for what it is and do our best to deal with it, to keep it out of our lives, even by the most extreme means we can imagine (such as pluck out your eye if it causes you to sin). We not only need to do that in our own lives, but we need to help others see the truth as well. As usual, Jesus is calling for extreme actions here that are radically different from the conventional wisdom. He is telling us that entrance to His Kingdom is worth everything we have to give and more. He is telling us not only to be ready, willing and able to give all we have and more, but that we need to actually be doing it.

This continual process is the way we learn and grow in our daily walk with Jesus. Prayer, study of Scripture and meditation on it is the method of communication God has designed for us. As we continue and progress in this rapport, we will be better able to recognize God's voice when He speaks to us. When that happens, it becomes easier to know His will and to walk in it. One reason we might give up easily is because we don't immediately see an answer, or we think the answer isn't the one we wanted. We are impatient when God says "wait." We aren't trusting when He says "I've got something better than that for you." We haven't developed a deep enough spiritual relationship with Him. We can gain boldness and persistence in prayer through the formation and cultivation of spiritual discipline. The more we learn about the way God designed to communicate with us, the more thankful we'll be for it, and the more we'll want to use it, until we can't imagine not talking to God about everything in our lives. When we see and feel the benefit in real ways in our lives and we see it as the relationship between ourselves and another real person -- THE CREATOR AND RULER OF THE UNIVERSE -- the relationship will become more of what God intended it to be.

As in actual fields, the preparation of the soil is the the first important consideration. A person needs to have been reached with the right message in the right way. By this, I mean mostly that only a person who realizes that they are completely lost and subject to God's judgment will be able to fully understand their need for a Savior. If they understand how completely they are condemned in their own merits, they will be more likely to be motivated by their love and gratitude for Jesus, the only one who can save them from the wrath that is to come.Once a person has that kind of love and gratitude for their Savior, then doing those things that please Him will be much more likely to be the things that fill a person's mind and time. Beyond that, some of the things that might account for better yield are things like the local church family a person becomes part of, the teaching they receive, their faithfulness to God's call on their life and so on. I believe it boils down to availability and utilization of resources. A person who is more receptive and responsive to the leading of the Holy Spirit is likely to be blessed by being put in situations and given resources that will allow them to be fruitful in doing the work of The Kingdom. John chapter 15 tells us the story of the true vine (Jesus) and the gardener (God the Father). Verses 2, 4 & 5 specifically, tell us how God will improve our circumstances in order to help us be more fruitful if we are faithful.

I think all of them are potentially very serious matters. The lure of money is always a big one that Satan uses to keep our thoughts and efforts in places they shouldn't be. Pleasures of the flesh are a huge temptation in today's world as well. Sex is everywhere we look; in advertisements, magazine articles, tv shows, books, movies, even when directed towards young people. We are all constantly bombarded with the idea that we should have nearly instant gratification of every carnal desire as well. Whether it be clothes, food, cars, vacations, houses or any one of many other things that we could list. As bad as all that is, I believe that the most dangerous of the thorns is worries/cares. The possibility that we can let our worries and fears overcome our thoughts and control our actions speaks directly to the heart of our Christian experience. At issue in this case is whether we really trust God or not. Matthew 6:25-34 tells us that God esteems man above all other created things. It tells us He knows everything we need and what's best for us. It tells us the ways in which God cares for His other creations and so how much better will He care for us? If we really are who we say we are and believe what we say we believe, then we have to take this lesson to heart. That we should be worried about this or that, or that we are inadequate to certain tasks/situations that come up, that we don't deserve blessings in our lives, these are some of the most insidious lies Satan uses to attack us. He can only have power over us in this way if we give it to him.

To repent of our sins is to first and foremost agree with God about what sin is (breaking God's laws, the Ten Commandments) and acknowledge that these sins are what keep us separated from God. It is to turn away from sin and toward God. Only the righteous can enter the Kingdom of God. The wages of sin is death. This is what we as sinners deserve. When we repent of our sins, we can then accept Jesus' payment of our penalty on our behalf. It is important because it is an act of obedience to the will of our Lord. It is a very important first step in a walk of obedience to the will of God. It is also a public display to the world that we have chosen to be obedient. No.

I think I would make the distinction "people who think they've adopted the Christian faith." If we do not see ourselves as guilty of having broken God's Law and deserving of the punishment for that, we will not feel the proper gratitude for having been saved from the punishment. Without that "attitude of gratitude" many (perhaps most) will begin to fall away when the promised trials and adversity that go with being obedient to Christ come their way. They want to have a relationship with Christ on their own terms rather than on His. In doing this, they are creating a false God, an idol, for themselves. They are making a God that is easier for them to get along with instead of agreeing with and obeying Christ. They are making a god in their own image. I believe that Matthew 7:13-14 give us the answer to this question. This passage says: "Enter through the narrow gate ; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it." I believe that the people on the two roads are all professing Christians and not everyone in the world (including all the unbelievers), as some people think. If we look at it in this way, we see that Jesus tells us that the majority of people who think they are saved aren't. in verses 21-23 of the same chapter Jesus says that not everyone who calls Him "Lord, Lord" will enter heaven. He says that many will be told to depart because He never knew them. This could translate to as many as 80-90%, which some studies indicate is the fall-away rate for new converts in the US.

The main thing they all have in common is to share the Good News with everyone. Most of the passages also seem to say that if the people you come to first don't want to hear, you should move on to someone else. The wise men were the first of the gentiles to hear the Good News. That it was very early in the life of Jesus seems to suggest that God did not intend for His message to only be for Jews from the very start. We should be bringing the Good News to everyone in the world, to as many as possible, by all means within our power.