All Out Christians
John 3: 1 – 21
Introduction.
One of my favorite times of the year is the annual
used book sale at the Kurth Memorial Library.
I enjoy reading, but I love books…especially when I can buy books for
about $1 apiece! This year, I went to
the book sale on Thursday, Friday AND Saturday.
I don’t think I spent more than $30, but I was able to pick up several
books that I probably wouldn’t have paid full price for.
One of the books I bought this year was the Pulitzer
Prize winning biography of President Harry Truman—written by David McCullough. The book is 993 pages long, and so far I have
read about the first 600 pages. (I’m
still reading it in case anyone wants to borrow it from me.)
Before I started reading Truman’s biography, there
were only three things I knew about Harry Truman. I knew he was the only president to use an
atomic bomb in war. I knew he was
associated with the phrase “the buck stops here.” And, I remember seeing the picture of him
holding the newspaper with the headline “Dewey Defeats Truman.”
I didn’t know the story of how he became President
of the United States Missouri United States Roosevelt
decided to run for a fourth term as President, but the Democratic Party was not
happy with his current Vice President.
At the 1944 Democratic National Convention, Harry Truman was selected to
run as Franklin Roosevelt’s Vice President.
They were elected in the November election.
Harry Truman served as Vice President from January
20, 1945 until April 12, 1945. At 5:00
on April 12, Truman received a phone call from the White House Chief of Staff
telling him to come to the White House immediately. (He received this call in Sam Rayburn’s
office.)
Not knowing why he was called to the White House,
Truman went so quickly that his Secret Service detail could not keep up with
him. He entered the White House and was
taken to a room where the Chief of Staff and Eleanor Roosevelt were waiting for
him. The Chief of Staff said, “Harry,
the President is dead.” Truman took Mrs.
Roosevelt by the hand and said, “I am so sorry Mrs. Roosevelt. Is there anything I can do for you?” Mrs. Roosevelt said, “No, Harry. Is there anything we can do for you? You are the one in trouble.”
For the next two hours, the White House staff made
phone calls to assemble all the members of the President’s Cabinet. The Cabinet gathered in the White House at
7:00 to swear in Harry Truman as the next President. That is when they realized they needed a
Bible and began frantically searching for a Bible in the White House.
Fortunately, one of the White House ushers kept a
Gideon’s Bible in his desk drawer. And,
at 7:09 on April 12, 1945, Harry Truman was sworn in as President with his hand
on a Gideon’s Bible.
Have you ever been in a situation like that? Harry Truman had only been Vice President for
two and a half months. Now, he was
expected to be President of the United
States
None of us have ever been asked to serve as
President of the United
States
John
3: 1 – 21.
1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council.
2 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."
3 In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."
4 "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!"
5 Jesus answered, "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."
9 "How can this be?" Nicodemus asked.
10 "You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things?
11 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.
12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?
13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven-- the Son of Man.
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, 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.
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.
19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
21 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."
(NIV)
Most of the time when we read this passage, we focus
our attention on one of two things.
Either we focus on verse 16, or we focus on the character,
Nicodemus. When we do this, we make this
a passage about evangelism only. But, there
is more than just evangelism in this Scripture.
John
3: 16.
One of the reasons we typically focus on John 3: 16
in this passage is because this verse contains a very memorable summary of the
Gospel. It would be a meaningful
exercise to analyze every word of this verse to discover the rich truth of the
Gospel.
Perhaps you have never thought about this before,
but there is more than one way John 3: 16 has been interpreted by Christian
people through the ages. It is proof
that all of us come to the Scriptures with preunderstandings and often press
the Bible into our understanding of God instead of allowing the Bible to shape
our understanding of God.
Some people come from a Calvinist point of
view. They read John 3: 16 and focus on
God’s action in salvation. For a
Calvinist, John 3: 16 confirms that God is the one who loves and God is the one
who gave his only Son.
Other people come from an Arminian point of view and
focus on two completely different concepts.
They will concentrate on the word “world” and the phrase “whosoever
believes.” For an Arminian, John 3: 16
confirms that God loves all people and salvation is available to “whosoever
believes.”
Since all of these concepts appear in one verse of
Scripture, I think it is safe to say that the Calvinist interpretation and the
Arminian are only half right in their interpretation. It is true that God is the one who took the
initiative to bring salvation as a result of his love. It is true that God is the principal actor in
salvation, because he gave his only Son.
But, it is also true that God loved the world and makes his salvation
available to whosoever believes. Therefore,
I think we are missing the point when we isolate any one of these concepts from
the others. There is a mysterious
tension between God’s work of salvation and whosoever believes.
Jesus demonstrates this by reminding us of an Old
Testament story from Numbers 21. While
Moses and the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, the
people were disobedient. As a result,
God sent a plague of poisonous snakes.
People who were bitten by the snakes died in the wilderness.
When the people recognized that the snakes came as a
result of their disobedience, they confessed their sins and asked Moses to pray
for them. Moses prayed to God, and God
provided a remedy. God instructed Moses
to build a bronze snake and stand it up on a pole in the middle of the
camp. Anyone who had been bitten by a
snake could look at the bronze snake and live.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t like
snakes. I would be genuinely freaked out
by poisonous snakes invading the camp.
Snakes in the tents…Snakes in the walkways… Snakes everywhere you look. I would be so freaked out by the snakes that
the absolute last thing I would want to look at would be a bronze snake on a
pole. But, this was God’s way for the
people to be saved. It was God’s way of
giving them life.
It doesn’t have to make sense to us or even seem
like a good idea. The most important
part of the story is that God provided the way.
The people could live as long as they followed God’s instructions to
look at the bronze snake.
In the same way, God has provided a way for us to be
saved. God loved us so much that he sent
his only Son, Jesus. Jesus was lifted up
on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins and the means of a new covenant
relationship with God. God’s salvation
is available to whosoever believes and looks to the cross of Jesus.
You
Must Be Born Again.
This is what Jesus was describing to Nicodemus in
verse 3 and verse 7 when he said, “You must be born again.”
You and I have heard the words “born again” so often
that we don’t realize how confusing they sound to some people. Nicodemus was hearing the phrase for the
first time and demonstrates that confusion.
He thought Jesus was suggesting that he enter into his mother’s womb a
second time in order to experience a second physical birth. But Jesus wasn’t talking about a second
physical birth. Jesus was referring to a
spiritual birth.
We see this in the way Jesus set up a contrast
between water and spirit and flesh and spirit in verses 5 – 8:
Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one
can enter the kingdom
of God
Jesus said that a person must have two births…born
of water / flesh…born of Spirit. Or, we
might say a person must have a natural birth and a supernatural birth.
Water = Natural Birth…Does NOT refer to Baptism…This
is a use of an ancient understanding of Water as a symbol for
fertility…especially male fertility…It’s like Jesus is comparing the role of
the earthly father and the Spirit…Perhaps we should say, Begotten Again…Since
the word Beget or Begotten refers to the father’s role in the birth of a baby…
Spirit = Supernatural Birth…Or, Born Again…Or,
Begotten Again…I see in this a reference to the original Creation in
Genesis…Therefore, this is a NEW Creation…By yourself, you are flesh and you
can never be more than you already are…You CANNOT change yourself…
Flesh begets Flesh…Spirit begets Spirit…A person who
will inherit eternal life in heaven is a person who has been Begotten by both
an earthly father and a Spiritual / Heavenly Father…
There can be no evolution from Flesh to Spirit…Not
everyone who has a natural life can have a spiritual life…You must be begotten
by the Spirit of God…
This leads me to believe that the key to
understanding John’s term “Born Again” is the Spirit…And notice what Jesus had
to say about the Spirit in verse 8…
You cannot stop the wind…It cannot be captured or
contained…You cannot predict the movements of the wind…You can only see where
it has been…The effects of the wind…
The Greek word for wind can be translated as wind,
breath or Spirit…It is the word pneuma…This is the root of our
English word “pneumatic”—which means “operated by air pressure”—and the English
word “pneumonia”—which is a disease of the lungs or respiratory tract.
Jesus is making a play on the Greek word pneuma
and two of its meanings… Just as the pneuma blows wherever it
wants…So it is with everyone born of the pneuma…
Just as the wind is a mystery, so is the
Spirit. God’s Holy Spirit cannot be
grasped, contained, captured or controlled.
The Spirit cannot be predicted, anticipated or manipulated to do certain
things. The Spirit can only be seen by
the ways he affects our lives and the lives of others…
There are a lot of things in life that I do not
understand: T.V…Car…Medicine…Yet we use
these things daily…
Imagine how silly it would be to say that you will
not take your medicine unless you understand exactly how it works in your body…
Medicine is like the Spirit…Just as it is better to
experience the healing power of medicine, than to understand how medicine
works…It is better to experience the power and guidance of the Spirit of God,
than to understand how the Spirit works…
The
Life of the Spirit.
Look at the way Jesus concludes his speech to
Nicodemus in verses 19 – 21:
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world,
but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 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." (NIV)
Jesus concludes his speech with Nicodemus with a
strange reference to darkness and light.
If we aren’t careful, we might be tempted to think Jesus is changing the
subject. But he is not changing the
subject! Remember what we read in verse
2 about Nicodemus? Nicodemus was a
Pharisee and a member of the ruling class.
He came to Jesus AT NIGHT.
Nicodemus was a good and admirable man. He was extremely religious and probably went
to church every time the doors were open.
He probably knew more about the Old Testament than all of us
combined. Not only did he know the Old
Testament, he meticulously kept every commandment in the Old Testament. He was probably even a member of a wealthy
family and lived the good life only money can provide. He was “good” in every sense of the word
“good.” But, Nicodemus still lived in
darkness.
The only way Nicodemus could move from darkness to
light is to experience a new spiritual birth.
This is not like the physical birth he received from his mother and
father. It is not like the religious
path he was on—trying to make himself good by the good things he could do for
God.
Instead, it is the work of God in us. Yes.
You must be born of the Spirit.
But that is not all. You must
also live by the power of the Spirit—daily yielding yourself to the power of
God so that the things you do can be seen by all…And all will know it is God
working in and through you. It is not
your own goodness or abilities.
Conclusion.
The story is told about the
Christian church on the island
of Madagascar
Perhaps you would expect a new
Christian to say they felt led to become a Christian through evangelistic
preaching. But that is not what most
people say. Most people say, “I knew this man to be a thief;
that one was a drunkard; another was very cruel and unkind to his family. Now
they are all changed. The thief is an honest man; the drunkard is sober and
respectable; and the other is gentle and kind in his home. There must be
something in a religion that can work such changes.”
On
one hand, none of us is capable of making that kind of change in our
lives. It is only the Spirit of God
working in and through us. On the other
hand, if the world doesn’t see a change in the ways we live our lives, they
will never be interested in our religious views / faith / church. They will simply think our God does not
change lives.
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