Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, "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."
In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."
"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!"
Jesus answered, "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. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' 8The 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."
"How can this be?" Nicodemus asked.
"You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things? 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. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
"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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
In the name of the Holy Trinity, dear friends.
Love is an elusive thing. You cannot weigh it, touch it, taste it, see it, hear it or capture it in a bottle. Yet, everyone instinctively knows what it is. When you’re in love you know it. When you say you love someone, you feel what that means.
Love is known by its expression and warmth rather than by anything visible or material object out there in the world. It’s a feeling and a desire to please without the hope of reward. Or, as someone once pointed out to me, “You’ll know it when it hits ya!”
Let’s consider then, THREE IN LOVE.
Nicodemus is an interesting character. He was a Jewish Rabbi, a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin and a teacher. He appears three times in the Gospel of John, first in our text, and later when he defends Jesus during the Feast of the Tabernacles and finally when he assists Joseph of Arimathea in preparing Christ’s body for burial. The last two appearances indicate that he was “washed in the blood of the Lamb” and that the meeting with Christ had its saving effect.
His name means, “victory of the people”, possibly because his parents thought that he someday would help or rule his people.
Our text reads: "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."
As a curious teacher, he comes to Jesus at night – at a time when there would be ample time to discuss Christ’s teachings. The Pharisees were impressed by our Lord’s teaching and the miracles he performed. Nicodemus admired Christ, because he called him “Rabbi”, a name reserved for accomplished teachers, a name that must have been applied to Nicodemus himself. He acknowledges that Jesus must be from God else he couldn’t do these miracles. He thinks that Jesus must be here on a mission and came to find out what it is. He notes that “we know” indicating that as one of the Pharisees, he shares a common opinion of the Lord. He correctly concludes that Christ is from God by acknowledging that God is with him.
Christ’s reply catches him totally off guard. "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."
Born again? What a cryptic response. Christ demands that he be remade. The thought of a second trip through the birth canal is preposterous, unthinkable and ridiculous. It’s physiologically impossible. How could Christ even suggest it?
After all, to be born a Jew was to be born into the Kingdom of God and that was that. Gentiles were lost. The birth process was over. Here is a man who by birth and profession thinks he has a reserved seat on the 50 yard line at the game of salvation. But Jesus tells him he must be born again.
But Christ corrects Nicodemus mistaken understanding. You miss the point. You have to be born of water and the spirit and undergo a spiritual rebirth to gain heaven. The Holy Spirit through the water of baptism gives you a spiritual rebirth. The old evil nature is conquered. Sin is overcome. Forgiveness is yours. Heaven is your reward.
The problem is that if you adhere to the rule of the flesh – alienated from God, and follow only your own evil conscience, you will reap the reward of the flesh and be lost for all eternity. Flesh has its reward. “The wages of sin is death”.
But to be born again means to enter the spiritual realm of forgiveness, peace, hope and salvation won by Christ on the cross. “I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.” Christ tells us. I have come to free you from the ravages of sin, death, and your own flesh. Jesus compares the Holy Spirit to the wind. Look outside. See the wind. Where did it come from and where is it going? You cannot really know that or control it. The Holy Spirit is like that. You cannot control him. The Spirit goes about his life-giving work and no one controls him. Nicodemus couldn’t save himself. Salvation is the work of God through the Holy Spirit.
Three in love with man – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, because “God is love”. And since the three are one, the Son is love and the Holy Spirit is love.
That is the lesson of Trinity. The Gospel of Christ who washed us clean in His blood is the love of the Trinity. The Introit for today expresses it very well: “Blessed be the Holy Trinity and the undivided Unity. Let us give glory to Him because He has shown mercy to us.”
Still, Nicodemus didn’t understand: How can these things be? He is so awe-struck that he cannot imagine what these words mean. You are a teacher of the Sanhedrin. How can you fail to see this? “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.”
You should know the difference between earthly things and heavenly things. “I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things”. You should know the law, the earthly thing, and what it implies: inability to please God and alienation and lostness. You must be reborn of the Spirit to understand heavenly things and the coming of the kingdom of God.
The fact is that Nicodemus did not understand the difference. His religion was based on the law and he knew it well. So many so called preachers today preach a “gospel” of earthly things, of works, of law that supposedly guarantee heaven, but doesn’t. Joel Osteen tells us to “become a better you”. Or there are the other feel-good preachers who spout a religion of “be all you can be”. In all they excise sin death and the devil from pages of their philosophy. There is not room for Christ and the Holy Spirit. At least, Nicodemus was a little different. He was listening.
Christ says in our text, “We (John the Baptist and I) testify to what we have seen. You Pharisees just don’t believe it. Christ tells him that he came to earth and will ascend to heaven and is the only one who will ever do that assuring him that he is from God. The three in love – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, assure him of forgiveness. The Son comes from heaven to give himself for us and through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, regeneration and new life are given by God.
Then, Christ ties himself to the bronze serpent of the Old Testament. The people of Israel had murmured against God because of the manna and God sent fiery serpents to punish them. Many died. Moses was instructed to erect a bronze serpent on a staff and assured the people that anyone who looked on it would be saved. God’s wrath over sin is always followed by his love and grace and mercy. Those who looked up to the bronze serpent in faith were saved. Christ assures Nicodemus that by looking up to Christ on the cross, everyone who believes will be saved. He is the ultimate cures for the sins of the world. The bronze serpent of old promised physical deliverance from the poisonous serpents sent by God. Christ promises deliverance from sin, death and the flesh brought on by man’s disobedience. An eternal cure not a temporal patch.
As Paul
tells us in
Ephesians 2:8-9
For it
is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and
this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not of works lest any man
should boast.
To be
saved from the penalty of your sins, you must look up to Christ who will be
lifted up in sacrificial obedience to death on the tree of Calvary. Christ is
lifted up on the cross and then lifted up into heaven signifying our full
redemption. In the same way that Moses lifted up the serpent and all who gazed
on it in faith were saved, so Christ was lifted up that whoever gazes on him in
faith is saved.
Three persons in one Godhead exist in caring love for man. God send Christ for the purpose of saving the world not condemning it.
Nicodemus must have had some problem with “everyone who believes in him may have eternal life”. He saw the promised Messiah as a savior of the Jews. Christ now tells him that ALL men are included in his plan of salvation, as Paul points out in Galatians 3:28: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Then, after hitting Nicodemus with the fact that he had to be born of the spirit and that the law wasn’t going to save him and that all men are included in the plan of salvation, not just Jews, Jesus tops it off with one of the most quoted, powerful and meaningful passages of the scriptures: “For God so….
Three in caring love for man – Father Son and Holy Spirit. You cannot separate them. God loved the world. It doesn’t say He loved it and quit loving it. At a definite point in time, when the fullness of time was come as determined by His divine plan, He showed His unfathomable love for ALL MANKIND and sent His own Son as the sacrifice for our sin and rebellion. He never stopped loving us. His grace never took a holiday. His care for us did not cease and never will.
God’s gift of our Lord on the cross to bear the guilt and punishment of our sins assures us of peace, forgiveness, and love in the present and eternal life to come.
John 3:20-21 tells us that “Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 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." Christ is that light of the world and whoever follows him will never walk in the darkness of sin. In Jesus light, sin is exposed and condemned. Jesus exposed sins at his first coming and died for them all. He will judge them again at His second coming, and those who persistently reject him, the light of salvation, will perish.
An atheist once said, "If there is a God, may he prove himself by striking me dead right now." He waited and waited and nothing happened. "You see, there is no God." His Christian friend responded, "You've only proved that He is a gracious God."
Nicodemus wasn’t able to see the kingdom of God at this point in his life. He would perish if he continued on his current path as will all who ignore John 3:16. But later we see that he was born again – he anointed the Lord’s body! So it is with faith.
CONCLUSION
BEING RELIGIOUS IS NOT THE SAME THING AS BEING A CHRISTIAN. And, YOU CAN BE A CHRISTIAN WITHOUT BEING RELIGIOUS. NICODEMOS HAD RELIGION BUT HE NEEDED TO BE BORN AGAIN OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. HELL IS POPULATED BY PEOPLE WHO ARE RELIGIOUS AND TRUSTED IN RELIGION TO SAVE THEM RATHER THAN TRUSTING IN CHRIST FOR SALVATION.
Your works don’t get you to the promised land - only THE work of Christ does. He came down from heaven, was lifted up on a cross for you and me and bore our penalty. He was raised from the dead and offers his cloak of righteousness to God. You are reborn from above by his redeeming work.
God’s love has been shown by the coming and the cross of Christ. To reject Christ is to reject God’s love. The Father loves you. Jesus loves you. The Holy Spirit loves you. Three in love.
You can see the Trinity at work in the story of Nicodemus. Nicodemus was converted. THE HOLY TRINITY IS THE GOSPEL. THE FATHER SON AND HOLY SPIRIT ARE ONE IN LOVE. THE VERY NATURE OF GOD IS LOVE - UNDIVIDED, YET EXPRESSED IN THREE PERSONS, A WONDROUS MYSTERY THAT ENDED IN THE SELFLESS SACRIFICE OF HIS OWN SON ON THE CRUEL CROSS OF CALVARY.
-Ever since Abraham and Sarah began their journey.
-Ever since Moses and the people were brought out of slavery in
Egypt
- Ever since God raised up judges, prophets and a king for
Israel
- Ever since God brought back his faithful people from exile
- Ever since God gave his only Son to die for us.
- Ever since God poured out his Holy Spirit on those who believe
in Jesus Christ
we have been blessed with this three-in-one love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We have been nurtured, cared for, and cradled in the loving arms of our God and redeemed to live a forgiveness, peace, and care for each other for now and for all eternity. Three in love with man, the Holy Trinity! What a marvelous mystery!
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”
Amen.
And now may the love of these three persons of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, keep your hearts and mind at peace throughout the coming days of your lives.
Amen