Let Me Say it Again

Please read John 3:1-17.  There was a law in Rome (which at the time of Jesus consumed three

continents) that read, no person could hold meetings at night.  Dark streets were a perfect environment for criminals and gangs to conduct suspicious activities.  It was by night, educated, influential Nicodemus sought time with Jesus. Nicodemus, one who strictly followed the Torah and was trained to prepare for the coming of the Messiah, professed to know that Jesus was a teacher who had come from God.  

      One major theme in this passage is… “no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” What does born again really mean?  Nicodemus asked Jesus, “How can someone be born when they are old?”  He continued, “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”  That is true, we know this, but what’s the point Jesus is making?  You see, the Jews knew themselves to be the chosen people and Jesus’ response of being born again shattered what he thought…being a descendant of Abraham was not a guarantee to Heaven.  Nicodemus heard that a birth from above, a spiritual transformation prompted by God’s divine work was required.  To be a part of the kingdom of God was not about morality or rules and law, it was a matter of the heart.  A claim on one’s life that is rooted in the heart; a rebellious heart being replaced by one desiring to follow God.  A transformation whereas a person, through their faith in Jesus, receives the Spirit and repents becoming a new creation in Christ. To realize that this is not anything done through his own power, but by the grace of God, created tension that Nicodemus awkwardly acknowledged and then seemingly worked through.  

     Nicodemus represents us – a sinner in need of salvation.  He’s religious and he’s lost.  Being born again is theologically defined as regeneration.  It marks being a new creation in Christ, and spiritually alive, which is a thread Paul sews through the epistles and one echoed by both Peter and John.  

     Jesus is telling Nicodemus that to enter the kingdom of God, you need to be born of the Spirit and of water.  Church, we are not saved by our merit, or hard work, we are saved by the mercy of our sovereign God.  Nicodemus questions Jesus again.  Confused and still believing that Israel already experienced a new creation after the exile, Jesus rebuked him.  As a teacher of the Law, he expected him to know better.  Jesus was straightforward, he told what he knew, what he experienced, what was true, and then left it up to Nicodemus to believe – to accept or to reject.  Friends, that’s our choice too.  

     Did you wonder what Nicodemus thought about as he traversed home in the dark that night?  Well, we hear about him two more times.  In John chapter 7, Nicodemus questioned the council as to the legality of arresting Jesus without so much as a hearing.  This took courage.  He went against the leaders, his contemporaries. No longer sneaking around, he boldly and confidently spoke his legitimate concern for the One the other religious leaders were planning to destroy.  And we hear about him one more time.  After Jesus took his last breath in chapter 17.  Lifeless and hanging on the cross, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for His body.  Scripture tells us Joseph secretly served and followed Jesus, because he so feared the retaliation of Jewish leaders.  And with Pilate’s permission, Joseph took the body with one other man…who?  Nicodemus, the prominent Jewish leader, the one who doubted, the one who questioned.  The one who stood up for and now who openly and generously went to serve.  Nicodemus brought about 75 pounds of myrrh and aloes.  This was an extraordinary amount, by today’s standard it would equate to somewhere between $150,000–$200,000 in spices…it was a burial fit for a King.  And while scripture does not expand on Nicodemus, this deep act of public devotion implies that he became a follower and true born-again believer.    

     As we know, this was all according to God’s plan.  The prophet Isaiah (53:8-10) wrote about Jesus 550 years earlier.  Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a respected rabbi, a ruler of the Jews who knew Scripture and knew about the Messiah.  He opened his eyes, he listened for the truth, he sought the Messiah and we were privy to his transformation.  His experience was not an ah-ha moment. Nicodemus experienced a shift from doubt to devotion, overcoming fear to celebrating his rebirth. He shifted from avoiding attention to openly defending him in the court of law.  He shifted from a clandestine meeting to publicly showering Jesus with an elaborate burial.  In the darkness he saw the Light. Church, the words Jesus spoke to Nicodemus are for us too. Accept Christ and bask in God’s love.  And all God’s people say, amen.

Blessings,

Pastor Kerry

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