[Recap –Nicodemus, a religious leader, comes to Jesus at night, and is told “no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”]
Nicodemus
Seen Jesus… but his religious understanding is making it hard to understand.
The greatest confusion which the enemy of our souls uses is religion… as it takes the great virtues… offers some valuable truth… and but can then leave us set is a position of self determination that cannot resolve the deepest issue. It can inspire morality, help to consider what is important, it can help provide great principles for life… but it cannot reconcile us with our Creator and the whole eternally good that we refuse in our independence… in our own claim of sovereignty.
For Nicodemus, as part of the people of Israel, … if the Messiah had come it was simply about getting Israel back on top.
- Pharisees relate to God as job description instead of doctor's prescription
Tries to come rabbi to rabbi
He uses the term “Rabbi” (teacher) to address Jesus instead of “Lord” thereby speaking to Him as
an equal. The signs had pointed to Jesus as God‟s man and Nicodemus wanted to speak to
Jesus as one Rabbi to another.
Born Again
Comes to Jesus at night, and is told “no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
= recalls the intersection of two realms; another dimension of existence
Jesus had stated the same to Nathaniel… you will see the son of man connecting the world above with this world below; if you want to be connected… I am the way
You are looking at the micro and missing the macro; spiritual dimension to life and if we can become right with that realm we can live fully in this world for our years and then forever. Unless we are born from above… born spiritually… we won‟t enter the fullness of life.
Water – John‟s baptism of repentance / Spirit‟s immersion into new life
There is certainly an element of mystery to the while process… as Jesus says it is like the wind which we can‟t see. Something happens within our spirit… indwelling. Kind of like how people wake up in the morning…. So dramatically and some slowly. (For some people, waking up is a rude and shocking experience. Off goes the alarm, and they jump in fright, dragged out of a deep sleep to face the cold, cruel light of day. For others, it's a quiet, slow process. They can be half-asleep and half-awake, not even sure which is which, until gradually, eventually, without any shock or resentment, they are happy to know that another day has begun. Most of us know something of both, and a lot in between. Waking up offers one of the most basic pictures of what can happen when God takes a hand in someone's life.)
Nicodemus can‟t initially grasp… so Jesus continues
John 3:9-21 (NIV) 9 "How can this be?" Nicodemus asked. 10 "You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things? 11 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. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven--the Son of Man.
Read together…
14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. 16 "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. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever 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. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But 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."
Jesus describes birth into a new life in three ways...
Three descriptions of the choice for birth into a new life…
14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
Jesus compares His eventual crucifixion to Moses' lifting up of bronze figure of a snake- Num 21:4-9
Drawn from Bill Jackson –
Jesus gives picture from OT… people on way to promised land… but turn away in grumbling. They turn away from God to heir own ways… the very essence of what the Bible means by sin. God releases snakes in their midst whose bites cause death and the people cry out.. „(7) Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, ‘We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against you; pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. So Moses prayed for the people.
God does not take snakes away he provides his own provision… bronze (Jim May - Brass is a symbol of judgment. If you study the Tabernacle, you will see that Brass is found in many places signifying that God‟s judgment for sin would be placed upon Jesus. God chose the serpent to let Israel know that He would place the judgment for their sin upon the serpent that caused death instead of upon them.). When there are snakes on the ground, you want to look down. They are going to have to get their mind off their own potential to protect themselves. They needed to look up by faith.
Either fear or faith is going to control you… fear will keep you looking down… it will require real faith to shift one‟s focus upward. This becomes a preview of what Christ would come to offer humanity … he would be lifted up so that all who turn to him could live again. (Take a moment and consider the weight of this declaration through history. A people who claim that God is using them to redeem humanity have this moment in which sin and salvation meet. Yet their hopes lie in God sending an ultimate savior… a Messiah. Jesus ends up lifted up on a cross that the whole world has seen. More than just that… think of what and when he declared it. He‟s is from a small town of a small people who are powerless pawns of an Empire… and he claims that he will be lifted up for the whole world to see. And here we are. Ask anyone on the planet if they could identify any life that has fulfilled this… and at least a vast majority would identify that indeed… that is what is reflected in the crucifixion of Jesus. Jesus has been lifted upon the cross for the world to see.)
For all it‟s compelling prophetic weight… it comes to us personally. The Cross of Christ has been lifted up… for us to gaze upon Him and see what He has done for us. We must choose to look up and see Jesus if we are to live.
1. For those bitten by death, God has provided a savior that we would turn in faith to. (vv. 14-15)
He became your substitute and took the wrath of God‟s indignation for your sin upon himself. He died on the cross, an innocent man, never having committed a sin in his own life. Jesus had no lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh or pride of life. He was without sin. And yet He took upon himself the sin of every human being that would ever be born.
This Jesus said is what Nicodemus must understand as the nature of what is needed. And today he tells us the same.
We were created as a people to enter the promised land… but we have turned away… and in our separation we have been bitten by death. Death is our destiny.. .and even now the poison of death is within us.
So it lies for us to look up… to look to him brings healing and restoration.
Jesus continues with what has become the most famous verse in the entire Bible…
16 "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.
Now most important word in John 3:16 is „For”… because it tells us what it is there FOR. that we could survive and enter the Promised Land. This is the life that comes from above… through he who broke the power of death.
„the world‟
Nicodemus is told that the love of God extends to the whole “world” referring to all of humanity.
The idea that God is concerned with the whole of humanity is an idea Nicodemus would have found shocking indeed! This was an idea that was almost beyond comprehension for the Jews. Remember the prophet Jonah, he could not conceive that God‟s love included the Ninevites (who were not only Gentiles but vile unloving and unlovable Gentiles).
The disciples John and James wanted to call down fire from heaven to torch a Samaritan village (Luke 9:52-56). It took a special vision from God to convince Peter that his plan called for including Gentiles in the Church (Acts 11:1-3) 16 "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. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever 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.
2. For those condemned, God has given a Son that we would give ourselves in trust to. (vv. 16-18)
He came not to condemn… but to save.
You might think good… but what Nicodemus needed to understand… what we need to understand… is that until we receive Him… „we stand condemned already.‟
Jesus did not come to condemn an already condemned world, what good would that do? When Jesus came the first time, He did not come as a judge. (He made that very clear to the man who wanted Him to give a judgment between himself and his brother. He said, “… Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?” (Luke 12:14). He didn‟t come as “a” Judge the first time. He came as “the” Savior. He will come the next time as “the” Judge.
The whole idea of being judged or condemned can strike us as mean… as unfitting for a loving God.
Drawn from Tim Keller –
In our world love and justice may seem disconnected but in God they are meld together… a holy love we can‟t hold together because we are different.
When I get furious I feel embarrassed because it shows my weakness… my lack of love pours out.
God is not a God of love or wrath… but both… if you only a God who never says „no‟… or and angry God who never says „yes‟ – unless we understand that these meet on the cross… you will be an indulged child or an abused child.
We live in the modern world of relativism… we cannot accept truth or standards as absolute… so much evil has come from people believing they are right (wars, etc)… that we have decided that nothing can be deemed right or true.
Often people will think it is hard to imagine why people thought it was okay to enslave others… but truth is that all societies had accepted domination of this type… and the real question is what ever caused someone to question it? Where do we get the idea of a loving personal God? Not there before God of Scriptures… especially and fully revealed in Christ.
God‟s wrath is his settled opposition to evil.
If a man commits a crime of robbery or battery… the victim may feel vindictive… but the state attorney imposes the state wrath of consequences because that is the order violated and it‟s consequence. They may even like the man…
In the same way… God is not being vindictive but simply is settled in goodness and opposition to evil.
Love and anger are inseparably tied bound together. Becky Pippert from Hope Has Its Reason – describes how when you see someone who you love unraveling in ruin of addiction… or abuse… you don‟t have benign indifference… you feel that natural desire to get a hold of them. Real love stands against the destruction.
Anger isn‟t the opposite of love. Hate is the opposite of love… and it‟s final form is indifference.
- Ex of Jesus weeping over Jerusalem.. he has warned.. and now he knows what will come
It‟s not harsh nor ignorant of consequences. Jesus is weeping over everything created for glory that is heading towards destruction
If you break the law of God and you break yourself… counter to design.
> Those who ignore his grace are already condemned… under his opposition to evil.
To so many abused… indulged..
What we need is to understand the cross – where wrath and mercy meet.
God can take us in because we were covered.
Like covering of an X-ray cloak that allows only tumor to be killed and not us.
If we believe in Jesus there is no wrath left for us.
But we must choose…
Bible teacher William McCarrell often used this illustration to point out what a person has to do to be saved: "While Andrew Jackson was President of the United States, a man was given a court trial and condemned to die. President Jackson offered to pardon him but the condemned man refused the pardon. Prison authorities, the Attorney General of the United States, and others earnestly endeavored to convince the man to accept the pardon. They tried to impress upon him that it would not only spare his life, but that if he did not accept the pardon, it would be an insult to the President. Still the man refused. The Attorney General consulted the Supreme Court, asking whether legal authorities could not force the man to receive the pardon. The court ruled that the pardon was merely a printed statement until the man accepted it. If he rejected the pardon, it remained printed matter."
Believe
Notice that the word “believe” is accompanied by the little preposition “in” which means to believe “in Christ.” That is, we must trust Him.
= „give ourselves in trust to.‟
An elderly gentleman was on his first airplane ride. When the plane landed, his family was waiting for him at the terminal gate. "Did you enjoy the flight, Grandpa?" asked one of the children. "To tell you the truth," he replied, "I didn't put my full weight down on that seat the whole trip!" -Preacher's Illustration Service, Vol 8, Sept/Oct 1995
We can all be reluctant to trust… to give ourselves in trust to another.
We get scared by total obedience because we fear he will call us to what we can‟t.
But it is like a coach… of course he will call us to what is uncomfortable and demanding. But only if we submit to such do we develop what is in us.
Our commitment to Jesus is ultimately a renewing of life… life giving.. like when you have a fish caught… appears dead…. but when you throw it back into the water.. it revives because it restored to being what it is.
We look to him in faith… and entrust ourselves… or better „give ourselves in trust to him.‟ Continues with a third description…light entering darkness
19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But 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."
In Jesus, the light has come and this invasion of God-light forever changes our world….it brackets all human and divine history. God has always used invasions of light to accomplish his plans, his great cosmic plans but also the plans for our lives as well. The story God's been telling throughout the ages has three great bookmarks which all revolve around light invading darkness: In Gen. 1, God gives us the first bracket of divine history; "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void...Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness." This creation light is God's first act of separating and dispelling darkness with God-light. At the end of history, while the world is covered in spiritual darkness, while the armies and ideologies of the world collide, while all hope for justice seems dashed, He will appear again."For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man...Immediately after the distress of those days 'the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.' At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear...coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory." (Mt. 24:27, 29-30b, NIV). The past invasion of creation light points forward to the person of Christ. The future invasion of the judgment light at the end of time points backwards Christ so that all human history revolves around God's great invading light found in Jesus Christ here in John 3. > The God-light of Jesus Christ stands at the center of all human and divine history but He must also come to stand at the very center of our lives as well. In fact, your very story can only be rightly understood and interpreted by one reality and one reality alone-where you stand in relation to this God-light of Jesus Christ! * God's invading light provides the framework by which we understand the story of our lives and the story of God's world.
Everything is exposed… evil and good; In this great vision of a light-invaded world, we see God's great plan to cause all things to flourish. * We see the slaves set free, the evil cycle of poverty forever crushed, the crops of the world bearing good fruit for all, the oceans alive with health. * In the light, we see the peoples of the world made right with one another and made right with the creation. * In the light, we see the diversity of race and culture that so often divides… now bound together in their common life with God.
3. For those in darkness, God has provided a Light so that we could enter the true life it exposes and offers. (vv. 19-21)
Jesus is “the light” who came “into the world.” Do we welcome such light? In truth, Jesus becomes a confrontation to every life. We can resent His intrusion into our lives and resent being revealed for what we are. We can prefer our sins to having Jesus as Savior, and therefore reject Him. Just as rats and cockroaches and other creeping things scurry away when light enters a room, we may want to flee from Him. It‟s a sobering truth… we can choose the darkness. But we can also choose the light. The Light of God exposes a new and true life that exists with God. By it‟s nature it will make us uncomfortable.. but it will also offer all that we long for… a life that is defined by the perfect love ad justice and beauty that we have longed for.
After all things, God ends his grand story of invading light by forever ending the darkness. At the end of time, John tells us of another world-a nightless world, a world that has no darkness, no suffering, no injustice-a world of light. John tells us in
Revelation 21:23-24 (NIV) “The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.”
We can choose to enter that true life.
Three basic truths that lead to life….
1. We are responsible for the consequences of our separation.
MUST ACCEPT OUR SINFULNESS TO ACCEPT LOVE
For most of us the generic confession of sinfulness comes easily-i.e., all human beings are sinners, I am human, therefore I am a sinner. (But…)We rationalize and minimize our terrifying capacity to make peace with evil and thereby reject all that is not nice about us. If we gloss over our selfishness and rationalize the evil within us, we can only pretend we are sinners and therefore only pretend we have been forgiven. -Brennan Manning, "Abba's Child" pp 157, 158-159+
2. God, out of a love for us, gives of himself sacrificially to provide a way to reclaim and restore us …amidst the unchanging standard of what is right and good.
3. We have a choice to turn to him by faith, give ourselves in trust, and enter the light of his life.
Conclusion: It is a process… but it begins with a decision… in fact every moment is a decision one way or the other.
Interesting how the life of Jesus culminated in a choice for all those whose lives he confronted. For the religious leaders… they tried a lot of ways to dismiss and discredit him… but in the end they simply chose to protect the status quo.
They got their way. And where was Nicodemus? (John 19:38-42) When the work of his colleagues is at it‟s height… Nicodemus is one of two who go up to the body of God‟s son… and take him down from the cross, care for the preparation of his body and burial. He made a took a bold step… he made a decision. Nicodemus came at night. He wanted to really engage and resolve who Jesus was and what he needed to do. He also came at night because the others who he was a part of… the other religious leaders and rulers… couldn‟t get past the fact that Jesus threatened their role.. .and they wanted him condemned. He chose the new life from above.
