march 5 2023
2023 Lent 2, March 5th
Old Testament: Genesis 12:1-9
Psalm: Psalm 121
Epistle: Romans 4:1-8
Gospel: John 3:1-17
Sermon Text: John 3:1-17
Sermon Title: “In This Way”
Grace to you and peace, from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
“Jesus answered him, truly, truly I say to you; unless one is born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God”. (John 3:3) As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up”. (John 3:14) “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life”. (John 3:16)
The Gospel in a nutshell. That is what some have called one of the verses in our Gospel reading this morning. It is a verse that used to be seen quite frequently on signs/banners at athletic events. A team would be kicking a field goal/extra point and while the ball was going through the uprights, someone would hold up a sign saying JOHN 3:16. Of course, the assumption was that most people either knew what the verse said/meant or that they had enough knowledge and interest to look it up for themselves. While the signs are not as common as they used to be, and the television networks would rarely show them anyway, many athletes have taken up the slack; posting John 3:16 (or other Bible verses) somewhere on their uniform, shoes, or body.
Of course, there is nothing inherently wrong with such displays, after all, they just want to tell people that God loves them and Jesus died for them, right? Or perhaps they are reminder to themselves of some of the promises in God’s Word. The ancient Israelites did something similar; putting verses of Scripture in a small box called a phylactery, and attached it to their foreheads. (See Exodus 13:9) But as far as being a public witness of our faith in Jesus, there is more to sharing the Gospel; more to the Christian life, than posting random Bible verses; verses which are often taken out of context anyway; and hoping people will understand. And for the record, John 3:16, like many other Bible verses, is frequently cited by itself, out of its context in the rest of John chapter 3.
So, perhaps we should begin by defining a key word from John 3:16; the word “love”; according to the rest of the Scriptures. In our world, love is most often defined in emotional terms; how someone makes you feel good or how you feel good about them but that is not how the Bible generally uses the word love. Jesus was not sent into the world because of the positive, emotional, good feelings He had towards sinful humanity; for we deserve nothing from Him except His eternal wrath and condemnation. This is what we confess at the beginning of the liturgy each week saying; I, a poor miserable sinner …
In the New Testament, the Greek word translated as love is “agape”; which means a committed, self-sacrificing love. “God so loved the world” (John 3:16a) by sending His Son to die a horrible death on the cross for it; not because He felt good about the world or to make the world feel good about itself; but to save the world from hell. “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins”. (1st John 4:10) We will talk more of this towards the end of the sermon.
Again, love, according to God’s Word, is being willing to sacrifice for others, to put the other person first, to do what is best for them, no matter how much it costs you personally. It is not about making them feel good no matter what they are doing; for we are never to affirm or approve people in their sinful behavior; and (for the record) the word “love” is used to describe all sorts of sinful behavior in our world.
In God’s Word, love is described as the perfect keeping of His Law and Commandments. As we heard in the Epistle last Sunday, “by one man’s disobedience (meaning Adam), many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience (Jesus’ perfect keeping of the Law for us) many will be made righteous”. (Romans 5:19) We are justified, made/declared righteous, by faith; “for what does the Scripture says? Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness”. (Romans 4:3)
Now, in our Gospel this morning, the Apostle John records, “Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, Rabbi, we know you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs you do unless God is with him”. (John 3:1-2) Nicodemus was Pharisee and most Pharisees did not believe in Jesus, but he knew enough to know Jesus was at the very least, a good teacher. Still, he came to Jesus by night, not willing to talk to Him openly.
Jesus confronts his false belief rather quickly saying “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again (born from above) he cannot enter the kingdom of God”. (John 3:3) Nicodemus seems to take Jesus quite literally saying “to Him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born”? (John 3:4)
Now, Jesus is clearly speaking of a spiritual rebirth that only God can grant and so He explains, “Truly, Truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you, must be born again”. (John 3:5-7) Being born of water and the (Holy) Spirit reminds us of Paul’s words regarding Holy Baptism being a “washing of regeneration and a renewal of the Holy Spirit”; (Titus 3:5b) “A washing of water with the Word”. (Ephesians 5:26b)
Jesus continues, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit”. (John 3:8) Just as we cannot control or see the wind, so we cannot control or see the work of God in someone’s heart. This is why the Catechism speaks of a visible and invisible church.
(As a reminder) The visible church includes all those who publicly belong to a congregation and make regular use of the Word and sacrament. The true church, which is all those who truly believe in Christ Jesus, is invisible; since faith (in Christ) which makes people members of the church is invisible to human eyes.
This new birth, the forgiveness of sins and the promise of eternal life, come not from within ourselves, but it is totally the work of God the Holy Spirit, working faith when and where He wills through the means of the grace; the Word of God and the waters of baptism. As John declared, “to all who did receive Him, who believed on His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God”. (John 1:12-13)
Remember that Nicodemus is a Pharisee, and as such Jesus points out that he should have understood what Jesus was saying; but he clearly did not. “Nicodemus said to Him, how can these things be? Jesus answered him, Are you (the) teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things”? (John 3:9-10) Jesus loved Nicodemus enough to correct his misunderstanding of His Word. He doesn’t let him continue to struggle with what he doesn’t fully understand.
Jesus patiently continues to teach Nicodemus saying, “Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things”? (John 3:11-12) It would take the work of the Holy Spirit, using Jesus’ Word, to bring Nicodemus to saving faith, and we know from elsewhere in the Gospels that he became a believer.
Even though Nicodemus doesn’t yet understand, Jesus testifies of Himself, “No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven; the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life”. (John 3:13-15) His reference is to the account in the book of Numbers, where the Israelites were being bitten by poisonous snakes and as a remedy the Lord told Moses to “make a fiery serpent and set I on a pole, and everyone who is bitten when he sees it, shall live”. (Numbers 21:8b)
When Jesus speaks of being lifted up, He is speaking of the cross by which He would atone for the sins of the whole world; for all those have ever lived or will live in the future. When anyone looks upon the cross of Christ, by which He won the salvation of the world, and believe in Him will “have eternal life”. (John 3:15b)
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son (into death on the cross) that whoever believes in Him should not perish (eternally) but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him”. (John 3:16-17) God loved the world so much that He willed His Son to die the death we deserved, so that we might have the hope and promise of eternal life.
Again, this was not done because of anything good in us, but because of the loving sacrifice of our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. This is taught repeatedly in Holy Scripture. Isaiah wrote, “He was wounded for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities … by His stripes we are healed”. (Isaiah 53:4-5) Peter taught, “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree (cross)”. (1st Peter 2:24a) John proclaimed, “Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for our sins … and the sins of the whole world”. (1st John 2:2) Paul also wrote, “In Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them … making peace by the blood of His cross”. (2nd Corinthians 5:19, Colossians 1:20b)
To the world, the cross of Christ is utter foolishness. Paul said, “we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles … but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God” (1st Corinthians 1:23b, 18b) We who have been “born again”; (John 3:3) “born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5); “through the living and abiding Word of God” (1st Peter 1:23b) are a new creation in Christ.
Therefore, we no longer see the Word and Gospel of God as foolishness, but rather we say with the Apostle Paul “I am not ashamed of the Gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes”. (Romans 1:16) Amen.
The peace of God …