Sermon for Sunday March 16, 2014 Lent 2 March 16, 2014 John 3:1-17 Verses 5,6, 8 “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…..The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound , but you cannot tell where it came from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus introduced himself to Jesus by saying that he recognized Jesus was a man sent by God. The devout Jew that he was, Nicodemus was waiting for the coming of God’s kingdom a kingdom to be brought in by the Messiah. He no doubt wondered if Jesus is heralded the coming kingdom or if Jesus was himself the Messiah. Jesus replied, “No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” Jesus turned the conversation away from Nicodemus’ question about Jesus being the Messiah, to the question of Nicodemus’s salvation. Jesus instructed Nicodemus that if he want to enter the kingdom, he must be born again. Nicodemus was spiritually dim and really didn’t understand the spiritual nature of Jesus’ statement. Nicodemus only saw the physical, earthly side of it. He asked, “Do you mean, Jesus, that I should enter my mother’s womb a second time and be born again?” Nicodemus could not grasp that Jesus was talking about spiritual birth not physical birth. That inability to understand spiritual things pops up a number of times in John’s gospel. When Jesus says he is the Bread of life, the crowds come seeking more bread. When Jesus tells the woman at the well that he offers her living water, she asks him to provide drinking water for her and her family. John tries to show us through Nicodemus’s example that without the Spirit’s help a person cannot understand spiritual things. Jesus tries to open Nicodemus to spiritual understanding. “No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.” Jesus, of course, is speaking of Holy Baptism. However, Greek word has two meanings. It could mean born again or it colud mean born from above. Jesus intent was to say that to be born again was also to be born from above by the Holy Spirit. In verse6 Jesus goes on to say, “flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spirit.” Flesh gives birth to flesh. Our flesh is born from our mother’s flesh, our physical birth. That’s what Nicodemus thought Jesus meant by “born again”. But Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit giving us a spiritual birth from God above Let’s contrast and compare flesh and Spirit. In the flesh we were born sinful. The Holy Spirit gives us a new life, free of sin. Sinful flesh is separated from God because of sin, but the Holy Spirit gives us a new spiritual life that comes from being restored or reconnected to God. The flesh is destined for death, physical death and finally eternal death, everlasting damnation. Our spiritual life is destined for Gods kingdom & eternal life. With those definitions in mind, baptism is the new birth, the birth from above. Through the waters of baptism, the Holy Spirit fills us with his forgiveness and eternal life and destines us for heaven. Having explained to Nicodemus the difference between existence in the flesh without God and spiritual life through the Holy Spirit, Jesus proceeds to teach Nicodemus about the Holy Spirit. Here we have those enigmatic words of Jesus about the wind: “The wind blows wherever it pleases.” What is Jesus talking about? The Hebrew word ruah means two things: wind and spirit. So when Jesus is talking about wind, he’s also talking about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is like the wind: “You hear the sound but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.” Just as I cannot control the wind, I cannot control the Holy Spirit. The wind blows where it pleases. The Holy Spirit cannot be controlled and it works on people as the Spirit chooses. Jesus goes on, “So it is with everyone who is born of the Holy Spirit.” We cannot control the Holy Spirit. The sinful flesh always wants to take control away from God. When I am tested and going through tough times, want to take charge and fix it myself. Out of fear, I refuse to let God be in charge; I refuse to let God be God. Those who are alive with the Spirit at work in them have surrendered control of their lives to God. At this point, Nicodemus interjects, “How can this be?” He’s saying “I don’t understand a word you are saying.” Nicodemus is not a man of great faith, but of limited faith and understanding. We hear about Nicodemus three times in John’s gospel. The first time, Nicodemus comes to talk with Jesus is at night because he’s afraid to be seen with Jesus in daylight. Like other Jewish leaders, he realized Jesus was a man sent from God because of the miracles Jesus performed. Also, Jesus drove money-changers out of the Temple. Nicodemus may well have known the corruption of the Temple rulers and their friends. Nicodemus probably believe the Temple needed to reformed. Jesus boldly proclaimed the truth about the Temple’s corruption. Because Nicodemus recognized that, he sought him out. The second time we hear about Nicodemus is in John 7 when the Sanhedrin was discussing the uproar Jesus brought to the land by his teaching. Nicodemus, a member of that ruling council, came to Jesus’ defense by saying, “Does our law condemn a man before even hearing what he has to say?”’ Nicodemus appealed to fairness on Jesus’ behalf. He knew Jesus was a just man and spoke the truth. The third time we hear of Nicodemus is in John 19. Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for Jesus’ body so he might give Jesus a proper burial. Nicodemus accompanied Joseph of Arimathea in taking Jesus body to bury in a garden tomb. John reports that Joseph of Arimathea was a disciple of Jesus but “secretly for fear of the Jews”. Maybe Nicodemus was also a disciple but if so, he hid his commitment to Jesus. He was afraid to be known as a follower of Jesus, even though him and believed Jesus to be God’s messenger. How many of us are like Nicodemus: followers of Jesus but we hide it? Someone has posed this challenge for us Christians: if we were arrested and put on trial for being Christians would there be enough evidence to convict us? Would anyone who observed our behavior in public be able to see that we are Christians? Or is our following of Jesus carefully hidden? That is the challenge Nicodemus presents to us. He was so wrapped up in his present way of life he couldn’t grasp what Jesus was saying about God. It wasn’t just a matter of Nicodemus’ mind, his thinking, but I believe it was a matter of his heart. His heart was not surrendered to God and thus he could not understand spiritual things. When you and I let go of control and let God be in control when the Spirit can work and we begin to understand spiritual things. It is a matter of surrendering control of our lives to God. Jesus said to Nicodemus, “You are Israel’s teacher and yet you do not understand these things? ....you and your friends don’t accept my testimony”. Jesus adds, “No one has gone up into heaven…” In other words, Nicodemus you cannot reach up to heaven and by your own efforts and knowledge think you can understand God. Instead, “The Son of Man has come down…” The Son of Man – that is Jesus himself – has come down from heaven to give you true knowledge of God. Give up on your efforts to rise up to God by your moral striving, your own insights. Let go, and let God. Surrender to the truth Jesus came down to deliver. So what is this truth that the Son of Man came down to tell us? You know the answer already. You’ve heard it before. “For God so loved the world he gave his only-begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” That is the spiritual truth at the heart of God. We already know that! We’ve seen that lone individual in the stands at a football game holding up a John 3:16 poster for the camera. We know all that stuff. That’s the advantage we have over Nicodemus. We’ve heard the truth about Jesus already. Nicodemus had never heard it before. No wonder it was confusing to him. But we have. We’ve heard John 3:16 all our lives. That may be just the trouble. Our society has a long Christian past and we may have just enough Christianity to be inoculated against it. If we were to carry the gospel to some far-off corner where no one had ever heard of Jesus, and they lived in fear of their cruel false gods and terrifying demons haunting their world, they would be eager to hear about Jesus. But, in our nation, we’ve always heard about Jesus. Everybody knows something about Jesus, not very much that’s accurate but something. Movies and television programs caricature sincere Christians as unloving , self-righteous bigots. Our Society has had just enough of Christianity to be inoculated against it. In faraway lands that never heard of Christ they are eager to hear but in our country people get really upset, even angry if a Christian starts to talk about religion. Secular minds make fun of the message “You must be born again” and yet, it is still true: we must be born again. We must surrender to the Holy Spirit. People still need to hear about Jesus but they need to hear the full story, the correct story about Jesus not the garbled half-truths prevalent in our culture. There may be many people like Nicodemus in our society who can’t really understand Jesus’ message. Like Nicodemus they lack the spiritual insight given by the Spirit. Believing all people are equal, folks in our society seem to think everyone should go to heaven yet they’re not quite sure of heaven themselves. I know of a dying man who confided to his wife, “I hope God grades on a curve.” In other words, I hope God sees that I tried by best to be a good person. Jesus is clear that God does not grade on a curve. You can’t live in the flesh, that is, live an ordinary life with a little nod towards God and hope that that will get you into heaven. No. We are all born of the flesh. Born in sin. Life in the flesh cannot give birth to a spiritual life in God. Jesus said, “No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again, born from above by the Holy Spirit.” Now we’ll finish with the last verse: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” You see, God does not hate us. God loves us. “For God so loved the world…..” No. To correctly understand our human situation, we must see that we have made God our enemy. Life in the flesh is indifference to God, hostility to God, fear of God, but not love. Life in the flesh is to have a smattering of Christianity, just enough to think we are religious, just enough religion to hope God grades on a curve, just enough understanding to think that I’m save because I’m baptized without a response on my part. Indeed, God saves through baptism: You must be born again of water and the Spirit. God offers you the gift of salvation in your baptism, and the gift is received simply by opening your heart to receive it. It is pure gift of a new life which only the Spirit can give us. Faith is that gift necessary to receive salvation. Pastor Phil Gronbach, Interim Pastor, St. Paul, Oregon
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 16:30:57 +0000
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