Sermon for Lent 2, March 5, 2023
Grace to you and
peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
John 3:1-17 There was a man of the Pharisees named
Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2He came to Jesus at night and
said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for
no one can do these miraculous signs you are doing unless God is with
him.” 3Jesus
replied, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless someone is born from above, he cannot
see the kingdom of God.” 4Nicodemus
said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his
mother’s womb and be born, can he?” 5Jesus
answered, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless someone is born of water and the
Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God!
6Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh. Whatever is born of the Spirit is
spirit. 7Do not be surprised
when I tell you that you must be born from above. 8The wind blows where it
pleases. You hear its sound, but you do
not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the
Spirit.” 9“How can these
things be?” asked Nicodemus. 10“You
are the teacher of Israel,” Jesus answered, “and you do not know these
things? 11Amen, Amen, I tell
you: We speak what we know, and we testify about what we have seen. But you people do not accept our
testimony. 12If I have told
you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you
heavenly things? 13No one has
ascended into heaven, except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man,
who is in heaven. 14“Just as
Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted
up, 15so that everyone who believes in him shall not perish but have
eternal life. 16“For God so
loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in
him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the
world, but to save the world through him. (EHV)
Believe what Jesus
knows.
Dear friends in Christ,
I recently
listened to an interview of a world-renowned physicist, and professed atheist, in
which he declared that he didn’t trust eyewitness testimony because it has been
proven unreliable. The only thing that
man considers reliable is what he sees with his own eyes, or perhaps what has
been observed through repeated scientific observations. What he fails to realize is that both of
those rely on what the eyes happen to see, and for good or ill, we tend to see
what we want to see. Furthermore, if he
is rejecting eyewitness testimony, honesty would require him to reject even what
he has seen.
Much of our modern world wants to treat the
Bible in the same misleading way. There
are many who say they cannot trust God’s Word because they claim it is the
testimony of men, and therefore not certainly reliable. That idea is hogwash, because “No prophecy
of Scripture comes about from someone’s own interpretation. In fact, no prophecy ever came by the will of
man, but men spoke from God as they were being carried along by the Holy
Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:20-21) When the
skeptic claims that the Bible has contradictory testimony, those supposed
contradictions are easily resolved when we understand that they agree on what
they are reporting about, but the Holy Spirit purposely offers differing
details of the events as needed for their audience. We need perfectly reliable information, and therefore,
Jesus’ testimony to Nicodemus in this text teaches us to Believe what Jesus
knows.
What many of those critics are really saying is
that they only trust certain, preapproved witnesses. They claim testimony is more valid when it
comes with a stamp of expert authority. Here,
Jesus makes a point of giving Nicodemus expert validation that far exceeds what
any ordinary scholar could provide.
Though men imagine all kinds of ways to puff up their own reporting and
investigation, there is no testimony more valid than that of the originator of
whatever one is discussing. Thus, when
Jesus tells Nicodemus how one might enter heaven, we all should listen intently,
for Jesus has that certain validity in His testimony that cannot be bested,
because “He was with God in the beginning.
[And,] Through him everything was made, and without him not one thing
was made that has been made.” (John 1:2-3)
Maybe I should begin at the beginning of the
text. A renowned teacher of Israel came
to the greatest Teacher the world has ever known. Nicodemus came to Jesus under cover of
darkness, because he was a careful scholar, who, perhaps, wanted truth without
the shouts of his peers. That may be
what made him so respected among Israel’s leaders. Nicodemus spoke to Jesus, saying, “Rabbi,
we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these
miraculous signs you are doing unless God is with him.” In this, we can see that this Pharisee came
to Jesus with certain preconceived notions.
Nicodemus considered Jesus just an ordinary man, yet he was willing to
grant that Jesus must have a special connection with Israel’s God, so we see
that Israel’s leaders were willing to admit that Jesus is a prophet, but nothing
more.
Jesus’ response to Nicodemus stumped him
further. Jesus replied, “Amen, Amen,
I tell you: Unless someone is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of
God.” What Jesus is telling
Nicodemus is that if God is with Jesus, Jesus must be part of God’s kingdom,
which the Pharisees were not willing to admit.
Furthermore, Nicodemus remained perplexed; How could someone old be born
a second time, and literally from above?
Physically impossible, correct?
However, Jesus again replies in a mystical way,
“Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he
cannot enter the kingdom of God!
Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh.
Whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Jesus is showing what He knows—something
which was long-overlooked in Israel. The
kingdom of God is not a kingdom of earth.
Even David’s kingdom, so revered among the Israelites, had been more
than an earthly kingdom. Yes, it was a
real kingdom on earth, but those who had the faith of David are members of a
far greater kingdom in heaven.
Born of flesh, we inherit the legacy of our
parents. It is a life of sin, rebellion
against God, and shame. By our mortal
birth, we are all mortal, destined to die, and headed to eternal separation
from God, deservedly so, for the sins we commit constantly and for our natural
rejection of the Creator who gave us life and formed us in our mother’s
wombs. The unbeliever doesn’t understand
this because he is relying on his own observation to derive whatever truth he might
discover.
Jesus continued, “Do not be surprised when I
tell you that you must be born from above.
The wind blows where it pleases.
You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is
going. So it is with everyone who is
born of the Spirit.” Jesus used an example
from the physical realm to show how some things are not discoverable by human
observation. Even today, with our
magnificent gadgets and all the expertise of science in our grasp, we still
can’t answer exactly where the wind comes from or goes. We feel it.
We hear it. We can measure and
predict it, but only because we see what it does as it touches other things.
As Jesus said, it is the same in the kingdom of
God. No one on earth can identify
exactly who God has chosen to make part of His kingdom or why He has chosen any
of us. Our testimony of what we believe
is the only thing we can truly observe.
Yet, Jesus is saying that those who believe in Him have, like the wind,
an interaction with the world that is discernable and makes a difference in the
world. The reason behind that is the
motivating power of the Holy Spirit. As
the Bible says, “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy
Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:3)
Now, Nicodemus was curious but still confused; “How
can these things be?” asked Nicodemus.
The man was an expert in the Old Testament, the books of Moses, the
Psalms, and the prophets. He knew the
history of Israel and how God had interacted with His people for millennia. Yet, he still didn’t understand that it takes
God working in us to bring us into His kingdom.
“You are the teacher of Israel,” Jesus answered, “and you do not know
these things? Amen, Amen, I tell you: We
speak what we know, and we testify about what we have seen. But you people do not accept our
testimony.” The Pharisees imagined
they were making themselves right with God by works. The Sadducees imagined that there is no
heaven, so the only thing to worry about is power on earth. Neither group would enter heaven without a
change of mind.
A couple times in my life, I have had the
opportunity to vacation while staying in homes I couldn’t possibly afford. To have any chance of entering those homes
without breaking in and having the police come and take me away, I needed to
get a key from the owners, or alternately, learn from the owner where I might
find a key he had hidden on the property.
What Jesus is telling Nicodemus is a bit like that.
Imagine the folly of thinking we can break into
God’s heavenly mansions by deception, trickery, or brute force. First of all, how would we find the
place? And, with multitudes of angels
guarding it, how could anyone force his way in?
The idea is ludicrous. Yet, that
is what people imagine when they think they can earn a spot in God’s eternal
dwelling place. Sinners trying to work
our way into God’s kingdom only leads to eternal banishment in hell. All of the Old Testament sacrificial system
was designed to show the need for one holy sacrifice that would gain a home in
heaven for sinners.
Having entered our world to be that sacrifice,
Jesus here offers us the key to His kingdom.
This is where our sermon theme comes in: Believe what Jesus knows. Jesus told Nicodemus, “If I have told you
earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you
heavenly things? No one has ascended
into heaven, except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, who is
in heaven.” If you want to know how
to enter heaven, the most reliable source of that information is the One who
descended from heaven to make it possible for us to go there, for when Jesus
speaks, it is God speaking to us.
Jesus then plainly explained to Nicodemus what
must happen; “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the
Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him shall not
perish but have eternal life.” That
teacher of Israel knew what had happened in the wilderness some fourteen
hundred years earlier, how Israel had rebelled against God and suffered for it,
yet how God had offered relief from death through faith. So that Nicodemus, and you and I, could be
saved from eternal death, the holy Son of God would appear to be a sinner like
us then be nailed to a tree in our place so that we could look to Him and be
saved. The Lamb of God, without blemish
or spot, would take all the punishment for the guilt of the world so that you
and I, and a struggling teacher of Israel, might be saved.
My question for you this morning is what did
Jesus know when He entered our world? We
have the answer in this text. Jesus knew
exactly what He came for, what He had to do, what He had to suffer, and even
when and how He would die, all to give us the key to His heaven. He told Nicodemus, “God so loved the world
that he gave his only-begotten 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.” This is what you and I
need to know and believe to be saved.
Yes, now as believers in Jesus, we want to know how to live and how best
to serve our Savior and King. At the
same time, we know that our service does not open the door to heaven. Only Jesus could do that for us. But He did, and He does.
The key to the kingdom of heaven is given to us
in the Gospel in Word and Sacraments. Faith
in the truth of all that God has done for us opens the door of heaven to us. The testimony of Jesus’ disciples wasn’t
given to show us what we must do to be saved, but to teach us how Jesus has
done everything God had planned to make us right with Him. Then, that saving gift of faith is brought to
us in the hearing of the Good News and in the washing flood of Baptism. As St. Paul declares, “I am not ashamed of
the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who
believes … For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed by faith, for
faith, just as it is written, ‘The righteous will live by faith.’” (Romans
1:16-17) Likewise, Peter teaches, “Baptism
now saves you—not the removal of dirt
from the body but the guarantee of a good conscience before God through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 3:21)
Dear friends, repent of your sins and put your
faith in the One who came from heaven to bring us home to our Creator’s
side. Trust the Son of God and Man who
told His disciples, “In my Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I
will come again and take you to be with me, so that you may also be where I
am.” (John 14:2-3) Believe what
Jesus knows. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all
understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life
everlasting. Amen.
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