John 3:1-17
Pastor Nathan
P. Kassulke“Jesus Is God’s Heavenly Gift to You”
Second Sunday in Lent
Sunday, March, 2023
Jesus and Nicodemus met at night. They were the only ones. Of course, John’s Gospel records many additional examples of Jesus teaching. Besides this exchange, the Bible tells us only one other sentence spoken by Nicodemus. I couldn’t tell you for certain what Nicodemus would say if he were to speak to us about his experience with Jesus, but based on what John describes for us, I imagine it would be something like this:
“Well…I am a little embarrassed that this is the event that people seem most interested in. They don’t want to ask me about the time I reminded the rest of the Sanhedrin that we shouldn’t condemn anyone without a trial. John included that in his Gospel, too. People remember from time to time that I helped bury Jesus on the evening of Good Friday. I know we didn’t have the time or the spices to do everything right, but we still took special care. But most of the time, when people think about me, Nicodemus, they think about the time that I met Jesus alone at night.
“And they wonder about the fact that I did it that way. Did I not have enough courage to go during the day? Was I worried about what would happen? Was I concerned that the other members of the council would be upset? Sure, all of those things played a part. I am a human being just like you. We sometimes make decisions out of fear and worry. On the other hand, that late-night visit gave me the chance to talk to Jesus, without crowds interrupting or demanding his attention away. I got to listen to him and ask questions. And I am sure glad that’s what happened.
“I was very curious about Jesus. If someone was doing miracles, and that was the report on Jesus, if someone was doing miracles, God had to be with that person. I said as much to him. I thought he might say more about God and about those miracles he was doing, but he instead told me about being born from above. He said that had to happen for someone to be able to see the kingdom of God. Some of your translations have Jesus saying that someone must be ‘born again,’ and that’s not a wrong translation. The Greek could have either of those meanings. But either way, I didn’t know what Jesus meant. I knew he couldn’t mean going back into my mother to be born a second time. Of course that couldn’t happen. But what did he mean?
“I know now that Jesus meant that God had to give us a different kind of birth. When he was answering, Jesus said, ‘Whatever is born of flesh is flesh. Whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit.’ And that makes sense. We have sinful parents, and so we are born sinful like they are. And that’s not something to take lightly. That means that we are enemies of God. That means that we are incapable of loving him or serving him or even believing in him, trusting him. It means that without help— without rescue—we are doomed to destruction in hell. I know I have felt my conscience bothering me, warning me. I know that I have done plenty of things wrong. I don’t at all like to think about the fact that I ought to be punished forever, but I sure understand that I ought to be punished.
“And without being born again or being born from above, punishment is all I would get. Jesus talked to me about the working of the Holy Spirit. He talked about being born of water and the Spirit. It was obvious to me that Jesus was talking about baptism. Baptism was a big deal with the work of John the Baptist going on. Some people in your day have apparently used Jesus’ words here to suggest that there are two different baptisms. They say that there is a baptism with water, like the one that you would use your font for, and there is another baptism of the Spirit. That Spirit-baptism would be the real one, the important one. That’s not what Jesus was saying. The Greek is even more clear than the English. This is one event, one activity that takes place: being born of water and the Spirit. This is when people are converted to faith. This is baptism.
“And this is a gift of God. Just like you, I had nothing to do and no choice involved when I was born the first time. And just like you, I had nothing to do and no choice involved when I was born again,
born from above. I didn’t need to make a decision or say a prayer. I’m not even sure I could pinpoint the time when I stopped questioning and started believing. But I know it’s a gift. The Holy Spirit gave me faith. He led me to know Jesus not just as a teacher or a miracle worker, but as my Savior. Jesus compared his work, the work of the Holy Spirit, to the blowing of the wind. We don’t actually see the wind, but we see and hear what it does. We don’t see the Holy Spirit, but we do notice what he accomplishes in our hearts and lives.
“And what he accomplishes is this: he connects us to Jesus. I did not understand this. I asked Jesus, ‘How can these things be?’ He answered that I should have known. I was a scholar of the Scripture, what you would call the Old Testament. I was an expert. I was a leader. But I had missed the main message of all of Scripture. If I couldn’t handle the amazing news about what God does for people on earth through baptism and conversion and faith, how could I be ready to know about heavenly things like God’s entire plan of salvation? Well, ready or not, that was coming.
“Jesus told me about his references if you will. He was the one who had come down from heaven, so he could talk about heavenly things. No one else had gone up to heaven to explore the mind of God or to learn his thoughts.
“And the most amazing part of God’s plan was that Jesus was carrying it out. He would be lifted up just as the snake in the wilderness was lifted up. I knew that story. When the people of Israel were in the wilderness, and they had sinned against God again, he sent venomous snakes to rebuke and correct them. The people had no answer for the snakes until God had Moses place a bronze snake on a pole. The people could look at the bronze snake and be healed. It was a gift from God. It wasn’t a scientific advancement or a special antidote. It was a sign from God and a message of his promise, and God led his people to trust in it. Jesus was talking about the death on the cross he came to die. He would be lifted up. It would look gruesome and wouldn’t make sense to those who didn’t know the promise of God.
“But Jesus would give not just earthly life. He would give eternal life. He would give forgiveness and heaven and rescue and escape. And every bit of it was a gift from God.
“This is the context in which Jesus shared what may be the most familiar and most popular verse in the entire Bible. And there is good reason it is so popular. It summarizes beautifully the truth of God’s gift. Jesus said, ‘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.’
“What we could never do in our sinfulness, God did for us. Even though we had not and could not have earned or deserved it, God loved us. Pharisees like me often thought we could do it on our own, convince God to love us by our good actions, but we could not. And I know it’s not easy to hear, but there is probably a bit of the attitude of a Pharisee in you, too. We all like to think and feel like we have earned something. But none of us have. The need, our sinfulness, was universal. And God’s love was universal. He loved and loves the whole world. And so he sent his only-begotten Son. He sent his greatest treasure. He gave his costliest gift.
“And that gift for the world brings eternal life to whoever believes. It brings eternal life to you who believe. The message of my nighttime visit with Jesus is not, ‘Work harder. Try harder.’ It’s not, ‘Be less timid and more bold in approaching Jesus.’ The message is that God loved a whole world of sinners so much that he gave his own Son. He sent his Son not to condemn the world but to save the world.
“The whole world needed this gift. The whole world needed being born again, born from above. The whole world could not do anything to help or save themselves. And God gave this most precious gift. Jesus is God’s heavenly gift for me. He is God’s heavenly gift for the world. And that means that he is God’s heavenly gift for you.”
The Text: John 3:1–17 (EHV)
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.