Welcome to Tuesday, how are you doin'? Fall has arrived and there's somethin' a-brewin'! The air it is drier, the temp it is low, it actually feels good to get out and go!!! Autumn brings changes, the weather's just one. The days they grow shorter, so we see lesser sun. 
Another's a pleasantness that comes from most folks. A change of demeanor, some show different strokes. So we welcome you, friend, grab your mouse, make a click. We hope for a thought that in you just might stick. Here are the Notes, we think we have range, our feature today is the song...
Written by lead singer, Klaus Meine, "Wind Of Change" resulted from a trip to the Soviet Union by the band during the late 80s. Perestroika was at its height and the Cold War between capitalists and communists was diminishing. Inspired by these changes and the tearing down of the wall between East and West Berlin, Meine infuses the sights and sounds of the time where great hope for the future was resounding.
"Wind Of Change" is the third single from the Scorpion's (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Send Me An Angel" (Scorpions)) 11th studio album Crazy World. The song quickly became an international hit, going all the way to #1 in the band's homeland of Germany and peaking at #4 in the U.S.. The popularity of the song bolstered its inclusion on three other albums by the Scorpions, Live Bites (1995), Moment Of Glory (with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (2000)), and the stripped-down unplugged album Acoustica (2001). Russian and Spanish versions of "Wind Of Change" was also recorded. This assisted the song in selling over 14 million copies, making it one of the best-selling singles of all time and the best-selling single ever for a German band. In honor of the success of the song, the Scorpions presented Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev with a gold record of the single and $70,000 from the royalties which were to be given to children's hospitals in Russia.
Fast forward to 2022 and the Scorpions continue to use the song in concerts albeit with a slightly different lyric, based on the "Wind Of Change" in our current world... The opening line..."Now listen to my heart / It says Ukraine, waiting for the wind to change..."
We've stated it before, the only thing constant is change. Sometimes the change is welcome, other times...not so much. Regardless we see it happening before our eyes in our world and if we are students of history, we read of it happening, well, constantly, if you'll pardon the wordplay.
One such instance is in the legacy of the Hebrew nation. During the time of Roman rule of the region, a wind of change was approaching that even some of the most unlikely folks, the Jewish religious leaders, got caught up in the gust.
Jesus was drawing the attention of the religious leaders of His time. Through His teaching and doing the miraculous, some of the leaders were beginning to respond in anger and contempt for Jesus. Others, while not overtly, were sympathetic to the itinerant teacher who was gaining a following. One such leader was the Pharisee Nicodemus.
Pharisees were a sect of religious leaders for the Hebrews at the time of Jesus. They consisted of priests and scribes that accepted the written tradition of the Torah of Moses as law, as well as an oral law given relevance by the prophetical writings that we currently view in the Old Testament. This oral law came about as contemporary situations were seen as not being covered in the Torah. The traditions laid down in the prophets were utilized and interpreted to bring those new situations under control.
The Pharisees differed from the other religious sect, the Sadducees who held a strict adherence to the Torah only. Both of these groups were threatened by the teacher Jesus who was creating a wind of change that they found unacceptable.
Nicodemus' story is one told often in Sunday School and Vacation Bible School at churches. Nicodemus' story is told only in John's Gospel. John would have possibly had a relationship with Nicodemus as his family had connections with the Jewish priests and religious rulers. It is an endearing story as it denotes the wonder by which one must be saved. The time limits placed on such groups and sometimes the ability to understand the concepts that Jesus teaches Nicodemus, leave us a little short of some of the details of Nicodemus' encounter with Jesus. The Notes hopes to remedy some of that today.
As a Pharisee, Nicodemus would have been significantly more susceptible to Jesus' message than his Sadducee counterparts. But because of peer pressure, and the mounting dissatisfaction surrounding Jesus by the Pharisees AND the Sadduccees, Nicodemus comes to visit with Jesus at night. I don't know about you, but I have had some "night times" of my life when I have approached Jesus too!!! Nicodemus acknowledges Jesus' authority as a "teacher who comes from God". Jesus' response to this "teacher" moniker goes right to the heart of why Nicodemus is there. Nicodemus is seeking the kingdom of God and Jesus provides him with the map. Jesus uses a phrase here that causes Nicodemus to scratch his head. "...unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God". This phrase also perplexes many in our day and age. Let's unpack it a bit, shall we?
Immediately, Nicodemus goes to his own frame of reference, the physical manifestations of this world. He was a student of the Torah and would have known the miraculous that God provided his ancestors, yet he could not understand the ideology of being reborn. That sounds as if we are being critical of Nicodemus. On the contrary, we just want to point out that many today, including some believers, have similar doubts regarding the miraculous that can happen in their lives even after they have experienced such encounters.
Jesus explains to Nicodemus that one must be born of water and the spirit to experience God's kingdom. He elaborates on the spiritual aspects of who we are and how that spirit can be rebirthed into something that is not corrupted. Jesus uses the wind and then love as an example of those spiritually accepted things as He emotes His purpose on earth. In one of the most well-known passages of Scripture in the Bible, Jesus explains that God loves mankind and wants a restored relationship with him. That restoration however comes at a price. God provided that price through His Son.
Jesus uses a story that would be very familiar to Nicodemus. He reminds Nicodemus about Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness as an object lesson about what He is on earth to do. Then Jesus unloads on Nicodemus a truth that is so beautiful that it will last into eternity future..."...“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." Jesus continues explaining to Nicodemus the meaning of all this in terms Nicodemus understands... judgment...light. Both are physical manifestations of spiritual thought.
Through this passage, Jesus declares Himself as God's Son. John doesn't give us Nicodemus' immediate reaction to this revelation, yet later on, in John's Gospel, we see our Pharisee friend a couple of times as he is becoming a gust in the wind of change. The first is John 7:45-53 NASB, AMP, ESV, KJV
Nicodemus here is attempting to aid Jesus by playing to his fellow religious ruler's devotion to their own law.
The final time we read about Nicodemus is after Jesus' crucifixion. John 19:31-42 NASB/AMP/ESV/KJV Nicodemus joins Joseph of Arimathea in this passage as they ensure the body of Jesus was properly prepared for burial. More coming about both of these great stories in the Bible as we proceed through Jesus' earthly life in the coming days. Stay tuned!!!
Maybe you are like Nicodemus. Being "born again" is a concept that is difficult for anyone to understand until you relate it to the spiritual realm to which Jesus refers. You see friend, Jesus came in a physical way to make sure that you and I have the opportunity for a restored relationship with God in a spiritual way. He came to pay a physical price for a broken spiritual covenant promise that was made by Adam and Eve. He did this because He loves us that much. Spiritual rebirth happens when we believe that Jesus said what the Bible says He said and did what the Bible says He did. This can only be accepted as we mature in faith, another spiritual precept.
Nicodemus, while quietly, became a part of the wind of change for his generation. That wind ultimately resulted in the development of a movement that holds Jesus as the Savior of all those who believe, which we know as the church. The church continues to be active in this wind of global change as they go about loving people and becoming more like Jesus. This is a church that with every day can sing louder and louder "...The future's in the air I can feel it everywhere Blowing with the wind of change..."
'Til Tuesday,
Loving HIM by Loving You,
randy
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