It’s crazy talk
John 3: 1-17
Some time back there was an email going around that has the subject: “How many Christians does it take to change a light bulb,” It is a turn of an old joke, I thought about that this week as I was preparing the message…
I want to share some of it with you this morning… So,
How many Christians does it take to change a light bulb?
• Pentecostal: Ten – One to change the bulb & nine to pray against the spirit of darkness
• Presbyterians: None – The lights will go off & on at predestined times
• Roman Catholics: None – Candles only
• Baptists: At least 15 – One to change the bulb and three committees to approve the change & decide who brings the potato salad & fried chicken (I thought that should be the Methodists.)
• Episcopalians: Three – One to call the electrician, one to mix the drinks and one to talk about how much better the old one was
• Methodists: Undetermined – Whether your light is bright, dull, or completely out, you are loved. You can be a light bulb, turnip bulb, or tulip bulb. Church wide lighting service is planned for Sunday. Bring bulb of your choice and a covered dish
• Lutherans: None – Lutherans don’t believe in change
• Amish: What’s a light bulb
I’m not sure who wrote that and what denomination they might be, if any, but this analogy pretty much sums up the different beliefs of various denominations? Someone poking a little fun at people of the Christian faith.
When I first read this, I enjoyed it until I came to the Methodist part – and at that point, I became a little offended. I wrote it off as just a joke and decided to trash it – But later, I went back & read it again, and after second thought, I like how it depicts the Methodist…
It said, “Whether your light is bright, dull, or completely out, you are loved – you can be a light bulb, turnip bulb, or tulip bulb – Church wide lighting service is planned for Sunday, bring the bulb of your choice.”
I take that to mean, “No matter who you are or what condition you’re in, you’re welcome to worship with the Methodist – come as you are, we accept you in the love of Christ…
That’s not a bad message to preach, is it? Come as you are!
When you boil it down, isn’t that the gospel – Isn’t that the message that Jesus Christ preached? Come as you are! I think it is…
The only problem is that so many people don’t understand the message… they don’t understand what it means to “Come as you are…” And because they don’t understand the message, many will miss the message…
In our gospel lesson this morning, we have the story of Nicodemus who comes to Jesus in the dark of night to discuss a few things…
We’re not sure why he chose to come at night, we can only speculate – perhaps the night symbolizes the darkness that surrounded Nicodemus’ heart & soul…
The Bible says that Nicodemus was no ordinary citizen… He was a religious Pharisee, a leader of the Jews, a Sanhedrin – A man who committed his life to studying & obeying the law… but somehow in all of his teachings & religion, he had missed the message…
Nicodemus had head knowledge, but he was lacking heart knowledge… He had a lot of religion – but no relationship…
Does that sound familiar? There are millions of religious people sitting in churches this morning who are as lost as Nicodemus because they have head knowledge, but no heart knowledge…
Many people get involved with church, but not with Christ… People need to understand that the church can’t save you – only a relationship with Christ can save you…
There is no doubt that religion (the church) will clean you up… it’ll make you look real good – but that’s only head knowledge… You can so easily learn what to say, how to act and dress so that you can fit in. Showing up in your Christian disguise is only head knowledge and there is no salvation for thoes that only learn the rules and customs to survive in the culture. There is no salvation for thoes that learned this just to make others happy, Momma made me go to church, it isn’t so bad. Too many people are very good chameleons fitting in to the environment.
If a person is to be saved, his heart has to be changed – and that comes only from a personal relationship with Jesus Christ…
That’s the message Jesus was preaching to Nicodemus… Nicodemus, the seeker, came seeking answers about religion & Jesus told him, “It’s not about religion – it’s all about a relationship…”
Being born again is a God thing – It’s all about the grace of God, not the grace of man…
We’ve all heard jokes about people showing up at the pearly gates seeking entrance into heaven… Some of them bring a smile to your face but they’re all based on the assumption that we must do something to get into heaven…
People are shocked to hear that entrance into heaven is not based on what they do… It’s based on the “Grace of God…” It is out of our control.
Actually, Grace goes beyond our comprehension, It is so opposite of what we learn in our earthly lives. Our human nature leads us to want to earn God’s favor. You see if you earn it, we have rights and privileges; we have some level of control. So, we want to be the ones that get us into heaven.
Many people envision God holding a one of thoes two sided scales putting weights on each side. We want to make sure we have enough weight on our side to make it in….Or we envision God having a big book with our names on a page… & every time we do a good deed, God puts a check mark by our name & every time we do a bad deed, God puts a check mark by our name… And whether we get into heaven or not depends on the number of good marks verses the bad marks.
That’s not how God’s plan works… If you think like this, then it is time to look at changing your light bulb. It is not scriptural to think that you have the ability to put any weight on the scales. God’s judgment is based on placing his check marks or weights on the scale and seeing if you measure up….Guess what, you can talk all of our positives and put them on the scale and it isn’t goanna budge. Because, none of us can ever bee good enough, not even those of you among us that all of us would call saints.
Jesus said, “No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born again…” That’s God’s plan – you must be born again…
Jesus tells Nicodemus, “No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit… What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit…”
Nicodemus didn’t understand this – He was struggling with the idea of a man being born again – he couldn’t understand how a grown man could be born again… That is pretty radical, to him and it still blows the minds of the people in our dark world.
It sounds like Christian mombo Jumbo meant to confuse outsiders.
It’s crazy talk!
So what happens when a politician claims to be Christian… they get grilled don’t they, they don’t even have to speak of being borne again, only mention that they are Christian and the slams start…
The press, man they can be hard, the atheist, special interest groups like pro-choice rally to attack a potential threat and the Christians that want to make their own judgments from personal Mt Sinai, start throwing rocks.
It’s crazy talk for any body to claim to be a Christian because, if your claim to be a Christian you are claiming to be good, perhaps perfect and exclusive only Christians will be in heaven. And if people actually read what is in the Bible, God’s view of fairness, right and wrong, and giving of a son, well its crazy talk.
Nicodemus is trying to sort it out, borne again. It’s not the words themselves. He understands the words, it’s how Jesus uses them. IT is a completely foreign concept because it is physically impossible
But being borne again according to Jesus, is a Christian thing, you can’t be one if you don’t go through the experience.
Yep, it’s crazy talk, it’s radical and it makes some folks think we are nuts.
2 Corinthians 5: 17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature ; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new…”
What does it mean to be born again? Well, it doesn’t mean turning over a new leaf – it’s not like going back on a diet for the 100th time – it’s not about a set of new resolutions – it’s not saying to yourself, “well, I’ve got to work on my morals…”
You can’t be more moral than Nicodemus… If anyone “deserved” eternal life, it would appear that Nicodemus had all the right qualifications… He seems worthy of eternal life… But the scripture reminds us that salvation is not about human effort or success.
Position does not save you…
Nicodemus held a distinguished religious position
Being a pastor doesn’t save you…
Being a Sunday school teacher doesn’t save you…
Being a choir director doesn’t save you…
Being a member of a church doesn’t save you…
Being a good mom or dad doesn’t save you…
Sitting on the same pew each and every week will not save you…
--- Being born again is not about positions…
Popularity does not save you…
The name Nicodemus means well liked or popular…
He was respected in his community…
He was recognized as a spiritual leader…
He was popular… But popularity does not save you…
Being born again is not about popularity…
Prestige & Piety does not save you… Nicodemus possessed both…
He was a man of dignity & a man of righteousness…
He lived his life studying scripture & doing the right things…
He spent his life fasting & praying, studying the law & studying the scripture…
He was religious – but he was lost…
Being born again is not about prestige & piety…
Being born again is not about human efforts – it’s about a personal relationship which is being born from above…
New birth is not something we do, it’s something God does through the power of the Holy Spirit… and it’s a miraculous thing…
Being born again is an intervention from God.
There is a show on TV called intervention. It is a reality show, a family member is lost, most of the time it involves drugs and alcohol. They are addicted and out in the world running toward death. The family and friends come together as a team to rescue the person, to snatch them from the world and hold them as long as possible and try to talk sense into the person.
God brings us back to life as new people in the spirit… He changes us… This supernatural act of God takes the Holy Spirit & implants the Spirit into our hearts – He gives us a heart transplant… It causes us to be a changed creature…
Friends, many of us, like Nicodemus, don’t understand it… I have had conversations with people where they say, I don’t think I can be good enough to get into heaven.
They usually looked shocked or at least surprised when I agree with them. “You aren’t good enough to get to heaven… But neither am I. “
In fact, none of us are good enough to get into heaven, but “thank God,” being good enough doesn’t have anything to do with it…
It’s all about changing the light bulb… It’s about being born again!
I read a story about an instant cake mix that was a big flop… The instructions said all you had to do was add water & bake… The company couldn’t understand why it didn’t sell – until their research discovered that the public felt uneasy about a cake mix that required only water… Apparently, people thought it was too easy… They thought that it was impossible to end up with a good cake.
So the company altered the formula & changed the directions to add an egg in addition to the water… The idea worked & sells increased…
That story reminds me of how people react to the plan of salvation… To them, it sounds too easy & simple to be true, even though the Bible says (Eph 2: 8), “For by grace you have been saved through faith, this is not your own doing; it is the gift from God – not the results from works…”
People that read and study the bible can read that and still have doubts and fears and look for the things they have to do. They spend a lot of time and effort looking for the RIGHT recipe, so they can cook up something good.
Unlike the cake mix manufacturer, God has not changed His “formula” to make salvation more marketable… The gospel we proclaim has nothing to do with being good enough… He has not removed the “too good to be true” qualities to Aleve our suspicious nature
That’s the message that Jesus had for Nicodemus… That’s the plan that God has for us. Jesus told Nicodemus the words that have become known as the “Gospel in a nutshell…
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that whosoever believes in Him, shall not perish, but have eternal life…” (John 3:16)
What caused Jesus to speak these famous words? It was His concern for a very religious man whose soul was lost. Not lost to the world but lost to the relationship that God offered. Lost to understanding that the offer was in his very presence and While it seemed impossible in some ways it was as easy as changing a light bulb or perhaps as lighting a candle.
The requirement is to go from darkness and impossibility to the warmth and encouragement of Light.
The requirement was not to be religious but, to have a relationship.
We have the opportunity this morning to change the light bulb… How many Christians does it really take to change a light bulb? Just one – His name is Jesus Christ…
Have you been born again?
Don’t tell me how good you are, don’t tell me about your religion.
Our founder, John Wesley would always ask the question, “How is it with your soul?”
That’s the real question we need to answer this morning!
How is it with your soul?
What we have this morning is a hard lesson to learn… The lesson is that salvation is easy – but we make it hard.
Salvation is not about us – it’s about God…
We’re worried about being good enough to get into heaven… we worry about our religion – do I read my Bible enough – do I spend enough time in prayer – do I do enough good deeds – do I go to church enough – do I tithe enough?
Please, please, please, don’t misunderstand me, all of these things are important & none of us do enough of it.
But many of us are so worried about what we’re doing, that we forget what God has done.
We make it hard, God makes it easy…
Folks, today our Lenten journey is a review that we will never get to heaven by our own works. Perhaps more importantly, we will never reach heaven based on the works of friends or family. We will never get to heaven if we stop moving on the journey.
There was a flight going from Atlanta to London, The plane was making good time when the passengers felt a funny shake and after a minute or two the pilot came on the intercom and told the passengers that everything was ok that they had shut down an engine because of a failure.
The pilot said, there is no danger the plane is very capable of making a safe trip with only three engines. The flight time would take about 1 hour longer that expects. Well in about a half hour there was another little shake and again the pilot calmly explained that an engine on the opposite side has now failed and again they were perfectly safe because they still had two good engines but now it another hour and a half would be added to the trip.
Another hour passed and the passengers felt something again and listened anxiously for the pilot. It was not long until his calm voice again announced that there was another engine problem, but not to worry because the plane was designed to fly and land on only one engine.
The down side was they would now be nearly 4 hours late arriving in London.
When the announcement was over, a man was overheard to say, Oh Great, One more and we will never get there.
This is not a journey that we make under our own power. The reflection and review that we consider is to recognize that the path and all that is required for success has been completely accomplished. The review is to look toward the source of power for the light which is already in us.
We can’t be a chameleon and blend into the Christian culture and be a good person by someone else’s or even our own preferences we must experience the power and ultimately the change on our own.
The Christian camouflage is probably the most horrible form of protection there can be because we fear embarrassment or people’s thoughts about us. Our pride and stubbornness is normally the only weights that separate us from the love of God and some how we think we can survive watching other people being loved and nurtured and we never reach for the manna the gift of grace for ourselves.
Folks, I am not your judge….More importantly, no one in this church or this world is you judge, only God himself will be the one to look into our soul and see if the light is there. He will see if the bulb has any light at all. He never looks at the outside because it is the light of the person within and not the outer appearance that matters.
Will he recognize anything about you?
Folks, don’t come to church to be religious, come for a vivid, bright and warm relationship. If the lamp is dim come and have bulb changed to a higher wattage or if you are old fashioned, get your wick trimmed.
Don’t make it hard – Salvation is easy! Christ didn’t come into the world to condemn the world, yet we spend our lives worrying about whether we’re good enough to get into heaven.
You and I already know the answer to that. NO!
But, God sent His Son Jesus into the world so that the world may be saved through Him… Through a personal relationship with Him – that means you have to know Him, personally!
Folks lent is a time when we are reminded that we need revival. We need a renewal of life that has an abundance only dreamed about. We need to be awaked from our winter slumber and be as exciting as Spring it self and to be changed and renewed as lights for Christ where ever he directs.
If you never really knew the way then you need to be changed.
If you have lost your way then you may need to be changed again by God’s own hand.
If you don’t have an interactive personal relationship with Christ, maybe it’s time to change your light bulb.
Yes, it’s crazy talk, Christ would love to be the light of your life…
Christ is crazy about you. He wants to have a church wide lighting service if we will allow him.
All Glory be to God!
