Sermon John 3:1-17
About this: A recent sermon which
includes one of the most famous Bible verses.
The Bible text is included in the talk. The formatting of this as I published it to the blogsite is a little strange - sorry about that!
Let’s start with the truth! This passage includes one of the most famous
verses in the Bible. It is a familiar
passage. Yet, the truth is, when I sat
and read it to start preparing for this morning I thought: Crikey! What does this mean?! I felt very much with
Nicodemus in his puzzlement about Jesus’ words.
Please don’t let the familiarity of these words get
in the way of their meaning. Let’s be curious, question and grapple with these
words to truly understand what is being said to us.
I’m going to focus in on a few verses but let’s
also walk through the story to put those verses in their context.
Verses 1+2: Now there
was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by
night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from
God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’
So, the first thing to notice is that Nicodemus is
a man of standing in the Jewish Ruling Council.
He comes to visit Jesus at night because he doesn’t want to be seen, but
these initial words of his tell us that he recognises Jesus as someone special.
Verse 3: Jesus answered him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no
one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.’
Jesus’ response to the compliment that Nicodemus
gives him is provocative. Honestly, if
you heard this for the first time – as Nicodemus did – would you know what
Jesus meant? This phrase is often
translated as being ‘born again’ – for me that translation carries a lot of
baggage. It feels as if the concept of
being ‘born again’ was adopted by the Evangelical wing of the church and became
a definition of an Evangelical Christian and therefore associated with a set of
Evangelical beliefs. Being a ‘born again
Christian’, for me, has become tainted with a sense of being exclusionary: a
sense of people saying I’m a more authentic Christian than you are: I’m a
better Christian than you are. I find
this translation, which talks of being ‘born from above’, more helpful – I am
drawn to it.
Understandably, Nicodemus doesn’t understand what
Jesus is saying. I think what Jesus is saying is that in
order to see God’s kingdom something has to happen to us: something that we are
not in control of. I was not in control
of my own physical birth – none of us choose to be born. I think this being ‘born for above’ is also
out of our control.
Let’s continue reading Jesus’ response to Nicodemus
in the Message version of the Bible.
Verses 5-8:
Jesus said, “You’re not
listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation—the ‘wind-hovering-over-the-water’
creation, the
invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it’s not possible to
enter God’s kingdom. When you look at a baby, it’s just that: a body you can
look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can’t see and
touch—the Spirit—and becomes a living spirit.
“So don’t be so surprised when I
tell you that you have to be ‘born from above’—out of this world, so to speak. You know well
enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the
trees, but you have no
idea where it comes from or where it’s headed next. That’s the way it is
with everyone ‘born from above’ by the wind of God, the Spirit of God.”
The first thing to say about these
words of Jesus is that they are a bit
harsh! They are harsh for a reason. Jesus is talking to a leader of his faith –
the Jewish faith – and this leader does not understand how God works. Nicodemus is in a position where he would be
teaching about God and yet he needs Jesus to teach him things which – to Jesus
– are basic. However, I don’t think the
fact that we are not leaders in the Jewish Council lets us off the hook. How long have you been a follower of Jesus?
How well do you understand what Jesus is saying here? These are the
fundamentals of our faith – we need
to grapple with these words.
So, what is Jesus saying? Firstly (look at the words
highlighted in yellow), I think Jesus is pointing to the mystery of
God. God – God’s spirit – is not in our
control. We can’t see it; we can’t fully
understand; we can’t put it in a box; we can’t decide who it touches and when
it touches them. The things of God are
from God – we can not manufacture them. God
is God: outside of our definitions and control.
Then (looking at the words highlighted in grey), how do we respond to our God? Just because we’re not in control doesn’t
mean we should do nothing. We need to
put ourselves in a position to receive God’s touch. We need to submit ourselves
to God; we need to be baptised into a new life.
We need to do what we can to put ourselves in God’s way. We’ll come back to this…
Verse 9 shows us that Nicodemus
still doesn’t understand (and let’s be honest – do we really understand what
Jesus has said?). Nicodemus asked, “What do you mean by this? How
does this happen?”
And so in verses 10-15 Jesus vents
some of his frustration with Nicodemus. Jesus said, “You’re a respected
teacher of Israel and you don’t know these basics? Listen carefully. I’m
speaking sober truth to you. I speak only of what I know by experience; I give
witness only to what I have seen with my own eyes. There is nothing secondhand
here, no hearsay. Yet instead of facing the evidence and accepting it, you
procrastinate with questions. If I tell you things that are plain as the hand
before your face and you don’t believe me, what use is there in telling you of
things you can’t see, the things of God?
“No one has ever gone up into
the presence of God except the One who came down from that Presence, the Son of
Man. In the same way that Moses lifted the serpent in the desert so people
could have something to see and then believe, it is necessary for the Son of
Man to be lifted up—and everyone who looks up to him, trusting and expectant,
will gain a real life, eternal life.
In trying to get Nicodemus to
understand what he is saying Jesus mentions an old testament story that
Nicodemus would have been very familiar with (The story can be found in Numbers
21: 4-9). He gives Nicodemus a bridge
into what he is saying. In the desert
God commanded Moses to make a bronze snake on a stick and lift it up. Anyone who looked at the snake was healed
from the poisonous snake bites they were suffering with. Jesus says in the same way it is necessary
for him to be lifted up – so people can see him and trust him and gain eternal
life.
And then we come to the famous verse! Let’s read it along with verse 17 – in the
Message version: This is how much God loved
the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no
one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting
life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an
accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the
world right again.
Again, please don’t let your
familiarity with these words stop you from being curious, grappling and
questioning. Sometimes reading familiar
words from the Bible in a different translation can help us to question a bit
more. I honestly looked at these famous
words and thought: what does this mean?
I have been grappling with these words – questioning them. I’m going to share what came out of these
words for me but please do grapple yourself!
So, here’s what I observed:
I notice that God GAVE his
son. And knowing that Father, Son and
Holy Spirit are one we know that this
means he GAVE himself. I heard recently
on a podcast that one definition of love is to give your life for someone
else. God is the definition of love and
he demonstrates this at high personal, incarnate, expense.
He gave himself so that no-one
need be destroyed. My understanding of
this verse is evolving. One way of
understanding what Jesus did is that he paid the price – of his life – so that
we can be reconciled with God. I find
this idea difficult – why would a God who is love demand such a price to be
paid? What I see played out in life is
that when I walk outside of the way of love it leads to me to destruction and
the destruction of others. I think we
all know this at a visceral/instinctual level.
We know we mess up; we hurt people; we destroy. Jesus shows us the way of love in completely
giving himself: he is the way, the truth and the life. The way of love looks like failure – it leads
Jesus to death. The way of love worked
out in our own lives may also look like failure. But we know that this self-giving way leads
to resurrection: to new life.
Note that ANYONE can have whole
and lasting life by believing in Jesus.
But what does it mean to ‘believe in Jesus’? In my grappling with the
text this was the central question that came up. I think in the 21st Century when
we think of a person who believes in Jesus we think of someone who believes
that Jesus lived, died and rose again.
But these words were spoken to Nicodemus – Jesus was sitting right in
front of him – he didn’t need Jesus to tell him to believe in his
existence! So, what did Jesus mean when
he said to believe in him? In my Cruden’s concordance I found a definition of
believe that makes sense to me: to be fully persuaded. Am I/ are you fully persuaded by Jesus in all
he said and did? Being fully persuaded by
Jesus is not an easy path: it is the narrow way: if we take Jesus’ words
seriously they are going to have an impact on our lives. Jesus calls us to be his apprentices – to
draw near to him, learn from him and become like him – this is the kind of
believing he wanted for Nicodemus and this is the kind of believing he wants
from us. This understanding of believing
gives us a lot more to work on (remember I said we’d come back to what we can
do?!). It is not an overnight zap and
change – this was never how Jesus changed people’s character when he was on
earth. We are on a journey and our call
is to daily walk with Jesus: walking in his way; being formed by and responding
to the spirit.
It is so important that we read
verse 16 with verse 17. Jesus didn’t
come to condemn or accuse (equally we should not condemn or accuse). Jesus came to put things right and to teach
the way of Love, with the ultimate consequence of giving his life. He loves us that much.
God is mystery and will work as he
wills. But we do have a choice. If we are fully persuaded by Jesus we can
live out our lives as his apprentices: learning the way of love. And, when we do this, we will have glimpses
of that kingdom.
Photo by Bhaskar Agarwal on Unsplash
