John 3:1-8 NIV
John 3:1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him." 3 In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." 4 "How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!" 5 Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."
“I Do, Part III – The Engagement”
We are in our third week of our “I Do” sermon series today, and to get us started this morning we are going to stay with our text and build it up a bit. This morning, we are still very early in the book of John… Jesus’ ministry was just beginning. So far in chapters 1 and 2… Jesus has called his disciples, he has gone to a wedding and changed water into wine, and for an opening act in Jerusalem at the end of chapter two… Jesus drove out the moneychangers from the temple.
The people… and the Pharisees are outraged and demand “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” and Jesus begins his wonderful game of speaking to the Pharisees in riddle and parable… “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days!” He doesn’t explain what he means, and the get even more upset at him… and he could care less. “Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all them inside and out.”
Now, after all of this excitement in town… John cuts us to a scene of Jesus at night, and we meet Nicodemus… a good Pharisee… a member of the Jewish ruling council… a very religious man who had been highly educated. Now, for some reason, Nicodemus… unlike his Pharisee brothers… was able to keep his mind open to what God was doing in his midst, so when the other Pharisee muttered their irritated resentment at this impudent intruder into their province, at this ignorant upstart from the north, with his strange ways and very questionable teaching and ugly disregard for authority… Nicodemus for his part felt that there was something here that could not be dismissed so easily.
Under the cover of darkness, Nicodemus comes and speaks with Jesus, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.” There, he had said it… out loud! Now it was time for Jesus to tell Nicodemus what a wise and faithful Jew Nicodemus was… but Nicodemus would not get any satisfaction from Jesus this night. Jesus responds immediately back to him, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born again.”
You could almost see Nicodemus deflate instantaneously. They continue their conversation, and Nicodemus gets confused about what Christ actually means by all of this. How can I be born again when I am so old? Am I supposed to find a way to crawl back into the womb??? *mock laugh*
Jesus replies, in not so many words… that when we make a commitment to follow the spirit we can’t do it half way. You see, what it said back at the end of Chapter two was still true… Jesus knows all people and Jesus knew Nicodemus and his heart. While his intentions were good… while he could recognize Jesus’ divine call… he was only willing to go so far. That’s why we find them meeting this fateful evening… enshrouded in darkness and conversing in hushed whispers. Nicodemus WANT’S to follow Christ… but he doesn’t want to risk his position of power and authority with all of the Jews who disapprove or even HATE Jesus at this point. So Jesus pushes him. Either you follow the will of the flesh or you follow the will of the spirit! “If you are going to follow me,” said Jesus, “you are going to have to be committed, 100%… even against great resistance!”
It’s a hard thing to do… to stay committed to a cause or a goal when you are faced with great resistance. It is a hard thing… to do what you know is right… when family or friends stand in the way, telling you that you should NOT do this. At least that’s the way it was for one couple who were engaged… were about to marry… and his mother decided all of a sudden, that she would stop at NOTHING to stop the wedding from happening. Let’s just pretend this couple’s names are Spencer and… oh… say… Alyssa.
Engaged to be married, and just a few weeks before the wedding… this young couple was absolutely committed to each other and to their relationship. Then, I don’t know what happened, but Spencer’s mom suddenly lost it… called her son and said “You can NOT get married!” I’m happy to say that Spencer never thought for even one second that he wouldn’t marry Alyssa, I am sad to say however… he thought about moving the wedding to give his mom more time… and just weeks before the wedding was about to occur, you can imagine how very pleasant it was for Alyssa to have THAT wonderful conversation.
Spencer told his mom, “I’m sorry, but I’m going to marry this woman whether you like it or not!” His mom replied, “Well then I’m not coming to the wedding!” Spencer thought for just the briefest of moments then said, “Well… you’ll be missed.” So things were finally back on track… right! Everything was copacetic and moving in the right direction… right! *Shake head* Nope.
A week before the wedding they went in to talk to their pastor and make the final arrangements. He opened the meeting with “I got a very interesting phone call from Spencer’s mom!” I know… right??? “She has begged me as your pastor not to do the ceremony. She said she would PAY me… not to do the ceremony” “Well, what did you say to her.” Then he smiled a big smile, and told us exactly what he said to her. Edited for the sake of the sermon, he told her… no. He was so cool!
But it was SO hard… to keep pushing on in the midst of so much resistance. It was hard dealing with a hysterical mother. It was hard to stay committed to what I knew… I mean… what Spencer knew was right. But was it the right decision. Well… duh!?! But it wasn’t easy.
You see dear Nicodemus… that is the kind of commitment it takes. You come to me hidden under darkness to speak with me in private because you are afraid that your Pharisee brothers might see. It takes real commitment, not a here today and gone tomorrow faith, but a faith that will stand strong in the face of adversity, a faith that will say “I belong to Christ!” no matter who may stand in your way or try to convince you otherwise. It is not easy. It will not be easy.
So many things in our lives will try to tempt us away from the path of following Christ. Friends will not understand us. Family members will disagree with us. The world will try to tempt and snare us away with every temptation under the sun… to get us to stop following Christ… to get us to stop living in the spirit.
It is not easy. It will not be easy. We do worry about what friends and family members think. We are continuously bombarded by temptation. Sometimes… it is SO much easier… just NOT to be a Christian. This world favors those who live by the flesh… who are not tied down by morals… who are willing and able to do anything to get what they want and to get ahead.
This world is hard against those who live by the spirit… who do live to a higher standard and live up to higher morals. Living by the spirit goes directly against everything the flesh would have us do.
The world says be first… the spirit says be last.
The world says look out for yourself… the spirit says look out for others.
The world says material wealth is all that counts… the spirit says there is nothing on this earth that we need.
The world says lie, cheat, steal to get ahead… the spirit says be honest and good in all things and your father in heaven will see.
This is what Christ is talking about to Nicodemus and his lesson for us. Either we can serve the world or we can serve the spirit. Either we are born of the flesh or we are born of God. There is no halfway. There are no weekend warriors who are good on Sunday’s but live for the world the rest of the week. We cannot proclaim him with our mouth and then deny him with our actions. We need to make a commitment to Christ… every day of our lives… and fight for that relationship… the same way a man should fight for his bride when his mother gets too nosy! We need to say to the world, I don’t care… and if you don’t like it… too bad! Because we are committed… we are engaged to Christ.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
