John 3:14-21
Paonia United Methodist Church
March 30, 2003
As we continue into our Lenten season,
I am called to remind you of what Lent is about.
Lent is the time, when we as a church
Are reminded of own sinful nature and humanity.
It is a time when we remember that we will
Return to the dust and ashes that we were formed from.
It is a time to reclaim our dependence upon the God
That gives us life.
The Gospel story chosen to remind us of this chasm
That stands between us and God is one that I am sure you
Are all familiar with.
It is perhaps the most popular in the entire Bible.
Of course I am talking about John 3:16…
The very essence of the Christian faith.
But, before we get there, I want to remind you that these texts
Are not formed in a vacuum.
They don’t just show up out of thin air.
This particular text came from another man on a journey
Much like the Lenten journey we are on now together.
His name was Nicodemus…
And, like us, he was questioning his own mortality
And sinful nature.
He too was seeking the kingdom of God.
Under the cover of night, we find that Nicodemus,
A Jewish Rabbi, that has come to question Jesus
and the miracles that he has performed.
Now, already I think we have our first clue about the text.
Our author made sure to tell us he came at night.
Why is this important?
Well, nothing shows up in Scripture by accident.
Nicodemus, is in the dark… literally.
He doesn’t understand.
And I think that this is quite purposeful.
Why?
Because in John’s Gospel he is referred to not just as teacher but "the teacher",
pointing to his religious authority.
If anyone should know the truth about God and God’s people,
surely it would be this man.
Yet, for all of his wisdom, Nicodemus is in the dark.
Although he recognizes that there is a chasm between himself and God,
He does not know how to reconcile that distance.
It is ironic that this man,
perhaps the most educated of all the Pharisees,
has to go before Jesus and ask him
to explain his teachings.
And Jesus responds…
"I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit[2] gives birth to spirit. 7You should not be surprised at my saying, ’You[3] must be born again.’ 8The 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."
And, true to form, Nicodemus misunderstands yet again.
He is still in the dark.
So Jesus has to explain it to him.
That’s what we have here in this passage from John this morning.
Jesus makes God’s extraordinary plan for the world plain enough for
Anyone to understand.
Even this bumbling character who by the world standards
Is brilliant, but by God’s standards is still very
Much in the dark.
John 3
14Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.[1]
16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,[2] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.[3] 19This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."[
This is the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are left wondering whether or not
Nicodemus ever understood what it is that Jesus was trying to tell him.
Did he step out of the dark?
Did he understand?
Or did he go away as confused as he was before?
We really do not know.
We aren’t given that part of the story.
But, thankfully, our Gospel writer gives us the story that
We might step out of the darkness ourselves.
Jesus made it plain to Nicodemus over and over again,
But he never quite seemed to get it.
Have you ever wondered why?
Have you ever wondered why such a brilliant man…
The teacher of teachers…
The teacher…
Couldn’t grasp such a simple concept?
I have.
And the best I can come up with is that it was just too plain.
It was just too easy.
It was just too simple to get.
And that was a problem.
Why?
Because the Pharisees had taken all of God’s gifts that
Had been given to the people and made them extraordinarily complicated.
God’s gift that was given to the people had been hijacked
By the religious elite.
And now, when Jesus came to give it back to the people,
It was so pure and simple that the religious elite could not even
Grasp the simplicity of the concept of God’s grace.
The story is a story of irony.
God chosen people…
The teacher of all the teachers,
The greatest of the great…
Are simply in the dark.
And, as amusing as the irony actually is,
I think it serves a greater purpose for us reading this today.
I think it serves as a warning…
I think it serves as a caution sign…
I think it serves to remind us not to go down the same path.
Like the Pharisee, I believe that
we like to make the Gospel more complicated than
What God ever intended for us.
In our attempts grow in our religion,
That is possible to completely lose sight of our faith.
They are two different things, you know?
Religion, Methodism for example, serves as a vehicle
To keep us focused on our faith in Jesus Christ.
Methodism serves as a theological lens that we view God through
And agree how to share our lives together because of
How Christ shared his life with us.
But, Methodism, like any religion, in and of itself is nothing.
Its like a light bulb without the electricity.
A car without the gas.
A motor without a boat.
The form remains, but in and of itself it is useless.
In and of itself, religion is meaningless.
And that is where the Pharisees were.
They had lost track of God and were serving a religion.
We are capable of doing the exact same thing.
Its possible to get so swept us in activities,
Committee meetings, music, even the worship service itself…
and forget what we are here for.
We are here as Christ’s body redeemed by his blood.
And that folks, is not just good news…
That is the Good News.
Jesus told us that "God so loved the world that he sent his only Son."
It doesn’t say that God liked the world.
It doesn’t say that God felt sorry for the world.
It doesn’t say that God had a warm fuzzy feeling about the world
It says that God "so loved the world."
Folks, that’s us.
That’s you, and that is me.
Levitical law demands a blood atonement for the forgiveness of your sin.
God loved you enough to send his Son to make that atonement.
For us, God gave his only begotten Son.
to suffer and die for the forgiveness of your sins and mine.
There is a paradox in its simplicity and complexity.
But the invitation is the same.
Step out of the dark and receive the light.
Serving a religion will leave you in the dark.
Receive the light of God’s grace through his Son
Our Savior Jesus Christ.
Now don’t get me wrong
I believe, perhaps more than anyone else in this church
That doctrine and rituals and practices are all important.
They create a theological lens through which we view the world.
We can see how the church has responded to different
Crises and events throughout time
And how they have ordered their faith
So that they could order their lives.
It gives us perspective on the world around us,
Particularly now during times of conflict.
But, in and of itself, it is useless.
Without God’s Spirit, it is meaningless.
Salvation is not gained through serving a religion.
But if you build your own religion or faith
Without the proper foundation in place,
What you have is nothing.
What is the foundation?
It is so simple that it is easy to miss it.
Nicodemus did, and so do a lot of church goers who
Never miss a Sunday.
Let me give it to you one more time…
God sent his only begotten Son, Jesus the Christ into this world.
Jesus was crucified as a blood atonement for the forgiveness of sins.
This is a gift given to anyone willing to receive it.
That means you.
It is through the death of Jesus Christ that we are justified before God.
But in order for us to have this gift,
We must first receive it by grace through faith.
What’s it take to receive the gift?
Ask for it.
Just ask.
That’s it.
It really is that simple.
Its called grace.
That’s why Nicodemus missed it.
He tried to make it a lot more complicated than it really was.
I think that is why a lot of people today
Show up week after week and never receive the gift that
God has already given to them.
They have not because they ask not.
People of God,
The basis of our faith is not complicated.
It never was meant to be.
Through Jesus Christ,
God took the gift of his Spirit away from the religious elite
And gave it back to the people where it was meant to be right along.
He did this as a gift to you.
Will you receive his gift?
