TITLE: LOSING YOUR RELIGION
SCRIPTURE: ST. JOHN 3:1-10
The first appearance of Nicodemus we see are found in the scriptures as read in our text. Nicodemus went to seek out Jesus at night. He was afraid to be seen with Him in the day. When Nicodemus met Jesus, he said he believed Jesus came from God but quantified this as being merely a teacher. He believed this because no one could do the miracles Jesus was doing unless God is with him. What is so fascinating with this is many of the other Pharisees witnessed the same miracles that Nicodemus did and many other Israelites did as well and the miracles was a key factor as to the reasons many believed, yet many of the Pharisees did not. Jesus said the reason they did not believe is because they did not know the Father, and NO ONE CAN KNOW THE SON UNLESS THEY KNOW THE FATHER and vice versa. Yet, when Nicodemus saw the miracles, he believed Jesus had come from God.
I believe Nicodemus had a soft heart and he wanted to authentically serve the Lord. He may have struggled with similar self-righteous and proud sins the other Pharisees did and many of us do, but overall, deep in his heart, he wanted to follow the Lord. He knew of the Father and because he knew of the Father he too had a desire to know something more about this man called Jesus.
• I believe many of us are like Nicodemus
• We struggle being like the Pharisees, but deep in our hearts we want to follow the Lord
• And like Nicodemus we too can break away from our Pharisee like qualities and whole heartedly follow the Lord
Let’s examine Nicodemus for a few moments this morning. What do we know about him?
• He was a devout man, no doubt about that at all
• He prayed daily
• He studied the scriptures constantly
• He visited the sick regularly, and offered words of comfort to the grieving relentlessly
• He was one of the “regulars” in church
• If the doors were open, Nicodemus was there
Each and every week you would find him in his usual place, that pew that felt almost like it had been bequeathed to him by God. He was comfortable in his place and the comfort of the familiar seat in the sanctuary helped him focus on God. But he didn’t just sit in worship. No, he worshipped God with everything he had.
• When the congregation sang - he sang with gusto
• When the congregation prayed - he prayed with fervor
• If he were living today, he probably would have checked-in on FACEBOOK when he arrived, and TWEETED whenever the preacher said something in the sermon that spoke to him, or whenever the music moved him
He would have done these things because he would have wanted to share with the world that which was so important to him -
• Worshipping the God who Created him
• Worshipping the God who Sustained him
• Worshipping the God who he knew would one day Redeem him
I suppose that he was the type of man you would find fixing pancakes on Saturday mornings for the Brotherhood Meeting or for those who were hungry in the community and distributing produce in the HFV Wilson Community Center on Wednesdays to those in need. If he had been handy with a hammer, I’m pretty sure you would see him joining the local Habitat for Humanity on Thursdays as well.
• He was a good man, no doubt about that
• His name could have been Simon or Max, but his name was Nicodemus
• Nicodemus was one of the leaders of the Pharisees
As a Pharisee, he believed that God’s law had to be strictly observed and that strict observance was necessary in order to obtain God’s blessing. And since he was a Pharisee, he would have believed that God’s law included not just the 10 Commandments, but a whole host of other Rules - Regulations - Rituals which had grown up over time. He believed all of these needed to be strictly observed in order for God to be pleased.
Given the Pharisees’ concern about keeping God’s laws, and their strict interpretation of those laws, it is not particularly surprising the Pharisees had what might best be described as a “tense relationship” with Jesus. At times Jesus referred to them as –
• Ye blind guides (Matt. 23:16)
• Ye fools (Matt. 23:17)
• Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees…for ye are like whited supulchres…full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness (Matt. 23:27)
• Ye serpents (Matt. 23:33)
• Ye generation of vipers (Matt. 23:33)
• Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! (Luke 11:44)
Time and time again in the Gospels, we see the Pharisees confronting Jesus, sparring with Jesus, trying to trap Jesus, in opposition to Him. But it wasn’t that the Pharisees were necessarily bad people, or even that their motives were always bad. It’s just they seemed to be perpetually in the dark where Jesus was concerned; and their attitude of certainty about what God required kept them in the dark about what God was really doing in the world.
While Jesus had many conversations with Pharisees in broad daylight, the first time Nicodemus steps onto the stage in John’s Gospel, he comes to Jesus at night. Some have said he came to Jesus at night because one school of thought held that it was actually best to study God’s law at night because there might be fewer distractions than in the daylight. If he really wanted to learn from Jesus then maybe he chose to arrive when the stars were out and the moon was shining so that there might be less to disturb his concentration. But it’s also highly possible that he chose to seek Jesus at night simply to avoid being seen by anyone else. Maybe he was intrigued by what he had heard about Jesus, and had a desire to talk with Jesus, to ask Jesus some questions, and to find out what additional rules he needed to keep. But knowing the tensions between Jesus and the religious establishment, he might not have wanted anyone to know he had sought Jesus out.
Whatever the reason Nicodemus chose to come to Jesus during A Night School Program, I suspect John makes a point of telling us this information as a way of suggesting Nicodemus came to Jesus knowing a lot about God’s law but being in the dark about what God was doing in Jesus Christ. When Nicodemus found Jesus that night he said to Jesus, “WE KNOW THAT YOU ARE FROM GOD…WE’VE SEEN THE SIGNS YOU DO…”
• By this point Nicodemus had probably heard how Jesus had TURNED WATER INTO WINE at a wedding feast -- which was a sign of God’s abundance
• By this night time meeting, he was also surely aware that Jesus had TURNED OVER TABLES OF THE MONEY CHANGERS in the temple and thereby enacting a sign to the world that sacrifices weren’t needed -- God’s abundant love didn’t require that
• And so by this point, he had heard enough to realize Jesus wasn’t just any old carpenter…not that this Jesus was the Son of God; not that this Jesus was the Savior of the world; but surely this Jesus was a learned man who had a connection with God nonetheless
Jesus knew when he met Nicodemus that he was different. In this chapter we see a phenomenal conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus that would change Nicodemus’s life forever. This conversation makes up some of the most quoted Scriptures that many of us have memorized today. Jesus knew it was understanding these things that would free Nicodemus from living the life of a Pharisee. As we established earlier, Nicodemus loved God, but still struggled like the other Pharisees to understand the Kingdom of God. This is the same problem we still have 2,000 years later. Jesus told Nicodemus he could never understand these things unless he was Born Again. And this did not only apply to Nicodemus it applies to all who seek to know the Kingdom of God. Like all of us, Nicodemus needed to be born again.
Coming to Jesus by night is not a statement about the time, Nicodemus’ motive, or his faith. It is, rather, a description of Nicodemus and his life, a description that probably fits all of us at one time or another.
• Coming by night is the recognition that there is a DAYTIME NICODEMUS AND A NIGHTTIME NICODEMUS
• Just as there is a daytime Wayne and a nighttime Wayne
• A daytime you and a nighttime you
By day Nicodemus knows who he is.
• He has an identity
• He is a Pharisee
• He has a role and a reputation as a leader of the Jews
• He knows and applies the Law
• People listen to and follow him
• He has a particular place in society
• He fits in
• He has security and power
By night, however, Nicodemus is Lost and Confused.
• He cannot see or understand
• Nothing makes sense
• He’s in the dark, as we say
• His work, accomplishments, reputation, and place in society no longer provide stability or answers
• Everything has changed
• He’s stumbling in the dark
Daytime certainty has given way to nighttime questions. “How can these things be?”
• By day he keeps the faith
• By night, however, his nets come up empty
• He’s looking for something the daytime life just cannot give him
We probably all know what that’s like. We live daytime lives and we live nighttime lives. By day all is well. We live with a sense of identity and security.
• We have a place and purpose
• Our life has meaning and direction
• Daytime reveals what is -- but darkness reveals nothing
• By night everything is hidden
• We stumble through the darkness, grasping for something to hold, seeking answers and explanations for our life
• Everything has been turned upside down and nothing is certain
• In the dark life things don’t make sense and we don’t understand
• The night is a time of vulnerability, questions, and wrestling with life
We are almost always better at daytime living than nighttime living. We have been taught to live daytime lives. That’s what our world values, encourages, and rewards. We want to be daytime people. That means we spend our time looking for information and answers.
• We build our reputations
• We desire recognition and approval
• We establish our place in life
• We buy stuff and gain wealth
• We want predictability and control
• We prefer what is safe and familiar
Daytime life is the life we create for ourselves. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that. We all do it and we need to. Some of those things are necessary. The problem is that daytime life keeps us stuck in the cycle of always having to create and re-create our lives.
• Somehow, we can never get enough
• We never quite get there
• It seems that which we most want is always just beyond our grasp
• That’s important information to know
• It means we cannot keep doing the same old things and expect a different result
It means no matter how hard we try, how much we gather, or how much we know something will always be missing from our daytime life. It will always be less than the life God intends and desires for us. No one can see the Kingdom of God without being born from above. NO ONE CAN ENTER THE KINGDOM OF GOD WITHOUT BEING BORN AGAIN.
To truly be born again, you must first be born of water. In the Bible we see two baptisms -
• The first is John’s, which is the baptism of repentance also known as the baptism of water
• In ST. MATTHEW 3:8 - when Jesus is rebuking the Pharisees, he tells them they must produce a fruit of repentance
• The first step to being born again is to repent, and recognize that you are in fact a sinner than needs to be saved
• The Pharisee inside of us does not want to recognize that we are not good people, but without this recognition you will never understand why Christ came and why you need Him
Next Jesus says be baptized by the spirit. John the Baptist says Jesus baptizes in the Spirit. Jesus laid out His salvation plan clearly to Nicodemus in the most quoted verse ST. JOHN 3:16. Jesus shared with Nicodemus that He came into the world, not to judge it as many of the Pharisees have done and many of us do as well, but rather to save the world and give eternal life. This life and salvation came at a great cost, which Nicodemus would later witness what Jesus would have to pay to give these gifts that are available to all who believe in Jesus.
Nicodemus came to Jesus certain that God’s blessing was predicated on keeping a rigid set of laws, believing that he needed to do something in order to earn God’s care. But in that nocturnal meeting Jesus began to chip away at that certainty, to deconstruct and undo what nicodemus believed. And this undoing of his certainty that blessings flow from rigid adherence to God’s law and that God’s love was predicated on our actions, this undoing was necessary for him to experience anew the miracle of being born from above, the miracle of a gift which has nothing to do what we know or what we do. Jesus was speaking to a man named Nicodemus, but I think he could have been speaking to us just as well, because I think that on some level we are Nicodemus.
We act as if we believe at times that we can secure our own future by our actions, and that our actions can indeed save us. Out of this belief --
• We build bigger armies and secure powerful weapons in an effort to guarantee our security
• We dismantle safety nets for the poor in the name of controlling a budget which is supposed to help insure long term solvency
• We give less than we could because we are afraid that we won’t have enough if we give too much
But as it was for Nicodemus, I think God challenges this worldview, seeks to deconstruct it, to undo it in our lives. Sometimes, like it was for Nicodemus, we come to Jesus and do not find the answers we think we will find, but find instead more questions. We encounter scripture and discover it doesn’t necessarily say what we think it says, or what the world has told us it says. And that can be unsettling for sure. But the undoing of what we think we know may indeed be part of the Spirit’s breath upon our hearts that allows us to become open to hearing God’s call anew and participating anew in God’s activity in our lives and in the world around us. Like Nicodemus, despite our attempts to live faithfully, we do sometimes misunderstand what God is calling us to be and to do.
Jesus points to the limitations of religion in his response: “YOU ARE A TEACHER OF ISRAEL,” A MEMBER OF THE RELIGIOUS ELITE,” AND YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND THIS?” Jesus insists, “I represent another realm of reality, I have seen a new vision. Unless you are willing to undergo a transformative experience and thereby escape your self-imposed boundaries, you will not believe.”
Nicodemus didn’t understand everything Jesus taught him that night, but the seeds of change – the seeds of faith – had been planted. He would ponder and come to fully believe the Messiah had come and His name is Jesus.
• That night however, he kept silent about his visit and kept his ever growing faith in Jesus to himself
• He didn’t let on, for some time, that he had talked to Jesus personally
• On the outside he was quiet, silent, but on the inside his soul was crying out for more
--After Nicodemus had become a follower, his life was changed forever
--He never hid his faith in Jesus again
--Jesus is the source of all truth, the meaning of life
--When we are born again, as Nicodemus was, we should never forget that we have forgiveness of our sins and eternal life because of Christ's sacrifice for us
--Nicodemus is a model of faith and courage for all Christians to follow
--When we allow Jesus into our lives, He becomes our priority, our satisfaction, and our peace
--No idol, possession or relationship compares
--As committed followers, we realize He is worth infinitely more than anything or anyone else
--He alone brings joy and peace into our earthly lives as we await our forever life with Him in heaven
--If we face rejection by others because of our faith, they are rejecting Him, not us
--Don’t take it personally- be “anxious about nothing!”
