John 3: Jesus meets the intellectual

Good evening everyone. I'm happy to announce that the winner was HEBREWS! So we'll start that book tomorrow night.

For tonight, however, here's my Sermon for Sanctuary Church tomorrow. As always, SPOILER WARNING.

--
Sanctuary Church
15th May 2011
John 3: Jesus meets the Intellectual

Michael was going to be speaking on this passage today, but for a variety of reasons he’s been unable to. He’s been incredibly busy this week.

Fortunately, in one of those things which might just be a “God thing”, I happen to be coming up on the Week of Terror ™ next week, so it made sense for him and I to swap. My apologies to any grandparents of Michael’s who were hoping to hear him speak, and I promise to invite you to another opportunity to hear him without telling him you’re coming! 

Meanwhile, I am going to speak to you from God’s word, so let’s now pray that I do it well.

(pray)

Nicodemus appears exactly twice in the Bible, and those two times are both in the book of John. So it’s surprising that we know a fair amount about him. He appears in a lot of Christian art, though, not so much because he is all that remarkable of himself, but because he’s part of one of THE iconic scenes of the Christian world. Specifically, THIS one.

When Jesus was taken down from the cross, John’s Gospel tells us that two people who were involved in the process were Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. So in many paintings of the “Deposition”, as it’s called, Nicodemus appears, although often the artist isn’t aware of who he is, so often he’s just one of two unnamed guys.

We also know a lot about what he thought because the Bible tells us what kind of a Jew he was – specifically, he was a member of a group called the Pharisees. At the time of Christ there were two really BIG groups of Jews – Pharisees, and Sadducees.

Sadducees tended to not believe in miracles and the supernatural. So perhaps you could see them as being similar to some priests that get way too much TV time – you know, the ones who don’t believe in God?

Pharisees were kind of the opposite extreme. They based their theology around the resurrection of the dead; on the last day, the dead would all be raised and judged, and the ones who had followed the law would go to Heaven, the rest to Hell. So in an effort to ensure they were in the first group, Pharisees made it their business to learn the law and learn it thoroughly.

At the time of Christ, the priesthood was dominated by the Sadducees, perhaps because they tended to collaborate with the government. Pharisees, on the other hand, were a natural fit for the legal profession, so the Jewish equivalent of our Supreme Court, the Sanhedrin, was largely run by Pharisees who knew the law (although the priests were technically at the head of the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees had the numbers to control the council most of the time.). Consequently, the priesthood and the Sanhedrin often were at loggerheads. Ironically, opposition to Jesus was one of the rare things that both seemed to agree on!

We know that Nicodemus was a Pharisee. He was also a member of the Sanhedrin – verse 2 tells us that he was “a member of the Jewish ruling council”. We therefore have a pretty good idea of the things he believed in, and we also know that he’d have been very well educated.

For some reason, though, Nicodemus was a bit of a rebel. Other rabbis were upset with Jesus, but for some reason Nicodemus wanted to take a closer look. Now, he may have been curious, but he wasn’t stupid. He knew that Jesus was persona non-grata with the rest of them, so he came to visit Jesus at night.

We have SOME idea of what was bothering Nicodemus from his opening line. He says

“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.”,

Given the view of the other Pharisees to Jesus, this is a big admission. And it seems at least to me that there’s more than a little conflict going on in Nicodemus’s head about this whole visit. Everything he’s been taught suggests otherwise, but the evidence of his eyes is that this man Jesus is doing stuff that only God can do.

There’s something completely dramatic about the next bit. Nicodemus is still finishing his opening statement when Jesus silences him, and without any preamble just utters the most confronting and bizarre thing that he’s ever heard:

“I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

Nicodemus’ first response to all this is to treat the statement at face value.
“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!”
At this, Jesus explains a little further. He says
“I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 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.”
At this point it may be worth asking a question which used to bother me – Why is Jesus being so obtuse? Why not simply give a theological manifesto to Nicodemus and speak plainly?
The answer is found in what Nicodemus WAS. He was an intellectual, as we’ve already seen. So Jesus isn’t going to just give him the answer on a silver platter. He’s going to make him work for it! This is actually a very good idea – it ensures that Nicodemus doesn’t mistake Jesus for a simple crowd pleaser. Nicodemus knows now that he’s dealing with an intellect that’s at least as sharp as his own, and then some.
Well, that’s all very well for the smart guy, but what is Jesus actually saying?
“Born of water” is easy. Jews saw water as the source of all things, so this is an old Jewish expression meaning to be born physically. It’s equally clear that this “Born again” concept is seen as needed for entering the Kingdom of God.
But what does Jesus mean when He says “Born of the Spirit” or “Born again?”
Pharisees believed in following all the rules. In fact, they didn’t just follow God’s rules – they put EXTRA rules in place so that they wouldn’t even get close to breaking God’s rules! God’s rules said “Do not work on the Sabbath,” but the Pharisees didn’t work on Friday afternoon, just to be sure. God’s rules said “Don’t eat unclean food”, but Pharisees wouldn’t even touch it. And so it goes.
The reason Nicodemus is sounding so concerned at what Jesus has to say is this – He’s saying that no matter how someone works, no matter how many laws they keep, they WON’T enter the kingdom of God! In short, BEING GOOD isn’t enough. OBEYING THE LAW isn’t enough. If you’re the same person that you were when you were born, you won’t see the kingdom of God!
No wonder Nicodemus is worried.
But Jesus isn’t finished yet. He goes on to explain this concept of being born again further. Just picking out a few key phrases, for time:
“No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.[d] 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,[f] 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.
Here’s the key to understanding this idea of being “born again”. Jesus talks about himself – the Son of Man is the term He uses – being “Lifted up”. This is about as clear a reference as you can get to his crucifixion. The incident he refers to is in the book of Numbers, chapter 21 – a plague of snakes were causing incredible problems among the people of Israel, so Moses was told by God to craft a snake out of bronze. When someone was bitten by a snake, they could simply look up to that metal snake and be cured.

Jesus is using that image of himself on the cross.

The best summary one can make of this whole section is found in verses 16 and 17, perhaps the best-known verses anywhere in the Bible. Can someone recite these from memory?

(recites)

Once we get this, the whole idea of being born again comes into focus. Jesus is saying that in order to be born again, in order to experience His kingdom, one must believe in Him. Note that key word - “Whoever”. Not “Whoever does the right things and believes”. Not “Whoever goes to church and believes.” No, it’s “Whoever believes.” It’s unconditional.

What difference does this make?

Only everything.

The difference is that whereas once we were like the Pharisees, desperately trying to be good enough to please God. We tried everything we knew. We went to church, sometimes twice on a Sunday. We prayed over and over again. We gave money to church and to other causes. We did all the good we knew how to do.

These were all good things. But if this passage of scripture is correct, we’re missing the point by doing them. All these things, these “good works” as we like to call them, aren’t enough – but simply believing in Jesus Christ is the deal.

One word of caution – words can trip us up a little. When we say “believing” here, the English version could leave us thinking “Well, I’m convinced that Jesus existed, and did all that stuff. So that’s it!”

That’s not quite all there is to it, though. The actual Greek word here is closer to “Exercising faith.” In other words, we’re not talking about a simple intellectual belief in Jesus – we’re talking about trusting Him completely, giving yourself over to Him.

A simple example: Here is a chair. I believe it’s going to hold my weight. It looks right, seems secure. Of course, I don’t know if it will. I will not know until I’m sitting in it. THAT is the kind of trust that this passage is asking for.

It’s a little more than simply “believing”. But it’s still a lot simpler than trying to be good and following all the rules.

Better than that, God ensures that once we’ve trusted Christ in this way, He will help us to live the lives we were desperately trying to live before – only this time, with His help, we will succeed.

(pray).