John 3:1-17
Paonia United Methodist Church
February 20, 2004
This morning we continue along our Lenten journey
As we return to an old friend.
Lent, if you remember, is a season set aside to contemplate
And even mourn the distance between God and mankind.
And the purpose of this is to take an account of those obstacles in our life that separate
Us from God and from one another.
Well, as I already said, that journey leads us back to an old friend
In a discourse I like to refer to as Nick at Night.
Who was this guy?
And what was this meeting between Nick and Jesus
All about?
I am glad you asked, because that is where we are going this morning.
John 3:1-17
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. 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.”
In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
“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!”
Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 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.”
“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven–the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
This is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, I have to ask you,
How many of you have heard this discourse before?
This discourse comes up just about every year during lent,
And it comes up for obvious reasons.
The season is set aside for us to meditate on the areas
Of our life that keeps us separated from God and one another,
And this discourse is certainly about an obstacle in
Nicks life as well as our own.
And, we what follows between Nick and Jesus is an interesting discourse
That has led to the most famous of all NT quotes, John 3:16.
Why is it so famous?
Well, we will come back to that.
Guess you’ll just have to keep listening.
So, let’s start with the setting.
What time is it?
This is important here.
It is the first bit of foreshadowing, kind of like a good
Movie when the music starts getting louder letting
You know to pay attention here…
This is important.
What time is it?
Its late!
Listen to how Scripture phrases it…
He (Nick) came to Jesus by night.
Think that is just in there by accident?
Nope.
That is a clue for us.
Nick is sneaky.
He sneaking around at night so as not to be detected.
She doesn’t want to be seen.
This is a top secret mission.
Well, who is he hiding from and why?
Again, it is no accident that John tells us who he is.
Nick is a Pharisee…
These are the religious elite who ended up seeing to it that
Jesus was killed.
Not real nice folks
And Nick isn’t just a Pharisee…
He is one of THE Pharisees.
Jesus tells us that later when he calls him
A teacher of Israel.
This guy is way up the food chain.
And here he is sneaking around at night
Looking for answers.
And, ironically, the answer man is in the dark.
Like the imagery here?
Its quite intentional.
The head of the religious elite is in the dark here.
Religion, rationalization, even good principals are not enough
To shed light on the darkness in his life.
And, he has come to this pivotal moment in his own life
Where the teacher becomes the student…
A most difficult situation for any teacher.
Anyone ever seen the Red Green show on PBS?
He has a recurring joke on the three most difficult words in the English language
For a man to speak.
Any ideas on what those are?
“I DON”T KNOW!”
How much harder is that coming from not only a teacher,
But from THE teacher or Israel.
He doesn’t know what to make of Jesus.
But Nick does tell us that at least he has a clue of what he is working with here.
He says “No one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.”
Wow!
That must of hurt!
But that is about as far as he gets.
At least that is all Scripture gives us.
He sees the work of God proclaimed.
He sees the sick healed,
The lame walk,
The blind see,
And miraculous signs before his own eyes.
But here he is, he is still in the dark.
Now, let’s just stop here for a second.
I want to check in with you for a moment.
Can any of you relate to this guy?
Think about it for a second.
Maybe been in the church for years?
Can claim that there is something special here…
Know that there is something to the whole Christian spirituality…
Maybe even felt the presence of the Holy Spirit but still aren’t
Quite sure what to call it?
Well, then I think that you can relate to Nick.
Here was Jesus, the incarnation of God standing in front of him…
He had seen the miracles and signs,
But still was not willing to call Jesus for who he was and still is.
Who is he?
Well we have a claim here in this discourse!
Listen again to verse 13.
This is Jesus speaking…
“No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven,
the Son of Man.”
Now, if you just missed that, Jesus just told him that he had been sent from heaven.
The Son of Man statement is debated by scholars as to whether or not
This in itself is a claim to messiahship or just God’s anointed as it was
Used in the OT.
Either way, he has just claimed a unique sending from heaven by God
And then further goes on to describe his coming crucifixion for the sins
Of the world.
What does this mean?
Well, the first thing that I see in this is the impossibility of assigning
To Jesus the role of model citizen, great teacher, or moral man
As some theologies try to dismiss him with.
He has made a claim that God has sent him from heaven for this moment
And has in the text claimed at minimum to be completely unique
anointed one of God.
Later in Scripture, he goes on to take away any misgivings of his
Claim when he does indeed claim to be the Messiah.
This means he is either the Messiah, or a liar.
Which is he?
The good teacher thing just doesn’t wash.
Still in the dark what all this means?
John gives everything you need right here to put it all together.
Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless
he is born again.”
“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!”
Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’
Okay, here is where we need to sit up and pay attention.
The first thing that I want to do is reassure you that I am not going to flog
You with this message.
Christ’s message of salvation is an invitation,
Not a whipping post.
I know we have some folks here who have been worked over
By super fundamentalist churches…
I want to make you a promise.
I am not going to work you over.
You are not going to be beat up.
I am going to do my best to tell you what Jesus was saying to Nick here.
Like I just said, this was an invitation,
Not a whipping post.
So, what do we do with this born again thing?
Well, if you are in the dark as Nick was,
This was and is an invitation to step into the light.
It is an invitation to be born of God’s Spirit.
It is not enough to be religious, a teacher of the law,
The very picture of worldly piety.
We have that picture in Nicodemus.
He is not a teacher…
He is THE teacher.
And he is still clueless here.
Don’t understand what I am saying?
You are in good company.
Jesus tells him that to step out of the darkness and into the light,
he must be born again.
At least, that is the translation we have from the NIV.
The NRSV translation is slightly different.
And, to be honest, I like the NRSV version better.
The NRSV says you must be born from above.
What is the distinction?
Well, first “born again” has been claimed by all sorts of groups
And I think that people have been beaten up by some using this
Terminology.
Therefore, as you and I try to understand what Jesus is talking about,
I think it is better to step away from language that may already be
A loaded term.
Secondly, born from above makes a distinction about what is happening.
To be born from above is to be given a new perspective,
A new mindset, a new vision from God’s viewpoint.
It is a new form of consciousness.
It is that part of your life that you know is missing,
But you just can’t quite put your finger on what it is.
You know that “IT” exists,
But you are not sure what “IT” is.
That “IT” is the part of you that God created for himself to live in.
And that “IT” is what Nicodemus knew was missing from his own life.
And that “IT” is what kept him in the dark all this time because
He did not know how to fill that space by himself.
I should say that this is the space that people have throughout time
Tried to fill by other means and have failed.
Drugs, alcohol, excessive spending and the constant desire for more…
Even religion will not fill this space.
It is God sized and God shaped for a reason.
Nick had finally figured out “it” was there.
He just didn’t know what to do about “it”.
He was in the dark.
So, if you are identifying with Nick right now.
And you know that there is a space, an emptiness in your own life
That you cannot quite point to…
Well, there is good news again here this morning.
Jesus not only tells us what needs to happen,
He also tells us how to get there.
What needs to happen?
We must be born from above.
How do we get there?
John includes that for us this morning as well.
“Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up.”
Now, I am going to skip over the Moses reference,
But suffice it to say that this was a moment of healing for the people of Israel.
The part that we are interested in this morning is the reference to the Son
Of Man being lifted up.
That’s the reference to the Cross.
What happened there?
Jesus took the sins of not just the whole world…
But your sin and made an atonement for you.
Why?
He gives us that in verse 15.
“That whosoever believes may have eternal life.”
We come to God by faith.
That space, that emptiness is filled when we accept
Christ’s atoning work on the cross.
We step out of the dark at this moment
And into the light as we take on a God consciousness
That was not there before.
That is what it means to be born from above.
And we have now arrived at the most famous verse in all of Scripture that puts it
All together for us.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
That is the Gospel.
That is what it is all about.
Gods grace.
For those of you who have been worked over before by a message similar,
But at some point took a hard right and sounded more to you like
“Turn or burn,” I want for you to hear the next verse as well.
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the
world, but to save the world through him. “
No turn or burn.
Just an invitation to step into a consciousness
And a level of spirituality that you yourself are not able to create for
Yourself.
No whipping post,
Just the loving hands of God wanting to pick you up and
Take you to a place that you have never been before.
An invitation for something better to fill that space in your life
That you know is there and just can’t quite name “it” for what it is.
An invitation to be born into a new perspective,
A new outlook, and a bold new purpose for your life.
If that sounds like good news to you, please pray with me…
