CHILDREN’S ADDRESS
I have brought a globe in today—map of the world. It turns like the planet earth really turns, so we can see all the different countries of the world. [note different countries].
Today’s bible reading speaks of God’s love for the world, with one of the most popular and well-known verses in the whole Bible. 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. “
For God so loved the world…” Do you believe that God really does love the world—the WHOLE world? He loves all the people who live in these countries today, and he’s loved all those who lived in these countries in the past. That’s a lot of people! He loves all the women, men, children, people with disabilities, the sick, the poor, the rich. Do you know he even loves those who do not love him, those who hate him, and those who do terrible things.
God loves you too. You don’t have to earn God’s love. He already loves you, and there is nothing you could do that would change his love. He loves us even when we sin against him.
How do we know this? He gave us his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God knew we needed a perfect sacrifice for our sin, and he knew his Son Jesus was the only one who could be that sacrifice. So Jesus died on the Cross in our place, to pay the price for our sin. We are another Sunday closer to remembering that event on Good Friday. Jesus’ death is how God shows how much he loves everyone. In fact it is through the Cross (tape cross around globe) that his love is enough for the whole world.
Which means God even loves YOU. So let’s read this verse again and replace the words ‘the world’ with your name For God so loved [your name] that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
God loves you so much that he gave up his own Son for you. He wants nothing more than for you to live with him in heaven. We don’t have to be perfect. We can’t be. God just calls us to trust in Jesus and his perfect life, death and resurrection for us, and he promises whoever does lives forever with him.
Prayer on Growing Faith at home insert
SERMON: Episodes in Lent: Episode 2
Two teachers, one truth… and the most uplifting story ever told.
We continue in our Lenten sermon series: Episodes in Lent. In each episode we are presented with two main characters in the scene and are drawn in to hear their conversation. Today’s scene is much calmer than last week’s setting in the harsh wilderness, where Jesus was tempted by Satan. Today we see a peaceful panorama—the late evening sky in Jerusalem. Fluffy clouds drowsily drift apart, allowing the trees on the Mount of Olives to be momentarily bathed in moonlight. Twinkling stars on the black canvas above are matched by the soft glow of oil lamps in dwellings below. You see the moonlit outline of the Temple in the background. The sleepiness of the city is a direct contrast to the hustle and bustle of the Passover Festival in the day.
As the camera pans across the scene your gaze is directed to a large courtyard, where you notice two people in the foreground. You instantly recognise the first as Jesus. Just about everyone had been talking about him lately. He had certainly disrupted the mundane routine of life across the region, causing quite a stir. First by amazing the people: he performed a great sign at the wedding in Cana by changing water into wine, and while he was in Jerusalem, he continued to do great signs, and many people believed in him. But he also offended people. He had cleared out the money changers from the Temple, overturning their tables, and driving out all the livestock being sold (John 2).
As the camera zooms in close, even in the dark of night you recognise the distinct attire of the man who sits with Jesus—a fringed, striped, outer garment draped over his head down the upper body; the attire of the Pharisees.
The man is Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council—the Sanhedrin—arguably the most zealous and influential group in Jewish society. He’s a very intelligent man steeped in the Old Testament scriptures and how they should be applied to everyday life situations in accordance with the traditions of the elders. It is hard to imagine a person more qualified to enjoy a good relationship with God than this upstanding, moral citizen. As a Pharisee, Nicodemus would have stressed loyalty to these interpretations and careful observance of the traditions as the way to earning righteousness and God’s blessing.
Like many others, Nicodemus has heard of the miracles Jesus is doing and is sincerely searching to find out more about him. But coming to meet with Jesus poses a significant personal risk—he would likely be expelled from his position in the Sanhedrin if he was caught. So Nicodemus comes to visit Jesus at night, under the cover of darkness. He is the first one to speak in today’s episode:
“Rabbi [Teacher], we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no-one is able to do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Nicodemus is searching, but not only is he shrouded by the dark of night—he is in the dark as to Jesus’ identity. Nicodemus thinks that Jesus has ‘come from God’ in a limited sense: a teacher appointed by God, rather than the Son of God himself.
Jesus answers: “Truly, truly, I say to you unless one has been born from above, they are not able to see the Kingdom of God.”
“How can a man be born again when he is old?” Nicodemus asks. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born’? It’s understandable that Nicodemus asks how a fully grown man can get back into his mother’s womb. Jesus replies: “Truly, Truly, I say to you, unless one has been born of water and the Spirit, they are not able to enter the Kingdom of God. That being born from flesh is flesh, and that being born from the Spirit is spirit. Do not wonder that I told you that it is necessary for you to be born from above.
Nicodemus said to Him: “how can this be?”
Now let’s just press pause for a moment and come back to the TV later. What has all this got to do with us today? Where are we in the scene before us, of Jesus and Nicodemus at night?
Are we like Nicodemus, searching to know more about Jesus? Does it feel risky to come to Jesus? Are we cautious about when we are seen with Jesus, coming to him secretly?
How deeply ingrained in us is the Pharisees’ idea of reward based on good performance, translating to our expectations of how God would treat us?
What are our foundational assumptions about who we expect God to be and what we expect him to do, endeavouring to make the kingdom of the Spirit fit into our limited, human minds? As he did with Nicodemus, where might God be challenging us to more align our thinking with his? When do we hear Jesus’ words and ask: “How can this be?”
God is far bigger than our minds, far bigger than our ideas and constructs. No matter how intelligent and well educated we think we are, no matter how religious and how good our performance, it does not warrant God to love us any more than he did before, and it is not good enough to enter the Kingdom of God. He does not give us greater favour because we might come from pure Lutheran stock, or are a family of regular church goers, or are on all sorts of boards and committees of the congregation. Our very identity as God’s people is not dependent on our service, worship and calling in life or the church. It is dependent on the Holy Spirit, who has called us through the gospel, enlightened us with his gifts, and sanctified and kept us in true faith, and who still calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, keeping it united with Jesus Christ in the one true faith, and daily forgiving our sins, and the sins of all believers (from Martin Luther’s Small Catechism, explanation to the Third Article of the Creed).
That is why today’s text is such good news. In today’s dialogue Jesus teaches Nicodemus that all his study, all his knowledge, all his strivings, will not help him. His being a Jew gave him no automatic part in the Kingdom; his being a Pharisee, esteemed holier than other people, counted for nothing; his membership in the Sanhedrin and his fame as one of its scribes earned not one skerrick of righteousness. Only the most radical change possible—a spiritual birth from above—enables one to see the kingdom of God. We are left with not the slightest doubt that what is asked of us is not more law, not more good behaviour, not more excellent performance, not more devout worship. It is not a work by humans that is needed, but one of God. Everyone needs to be completely remade in order to know God; a change so radical that it is nothing less than the power of God within to give us new birth.
That’s a work of grace, and as we look on in this episode, we see God’s grace in Jesus towards Nicodemus. Jesus is direct with Nicodemus, because he is concerned for him to know the truth—and the freedom and new life that God’s truth brings. Yet Jesus is careful and patient with him in his teaching, not interested in shaming, belittling, or judging him. When we next hear of Nicodemus and Jesus together in John’s Gospel, it is during a meeting with the Sanhedrin, where Nicodemus defends Jesus (7:50-52). The final time is near the end of John (19:39-42) where he is involved in preparing the body of Jesus for burial.
As he did, perhaps Nicodemus remembered these words of Jesus—that just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert so must the Son of Man be lifted up, and made the connection of what happened for God’s ancient people. During their wilderness wanderings God’s people grumbled against him. He sent fiery serpents to bite them and many died. But God told Moses to make a bronze serpent and lift it up on a pole. Whoever trusted God’s promise by looking away from themselves and to the bronze snake was healed and would live.
Today’s text is perhaps most famous for verse 16; the John 3:16 verse reference that people even have on banners at sports arenas. Luther described this verse as ‘The gospel in miniature’: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”
Yet these words would be of little help to us unless we believed them to be true for us.
Can you imagine where you would be in relation to God if you didn’t believe these words? Like Nicodemus in this first encounter with Jesus, we would still be trusting in ourselves; our own efforts to be good enough to work our way up into the kingdom of heaven. But at the font you were born anew by water and the Spirit to hear and know these words as true for you—that the Son of Man was lifted up for you that you may see the Kingdom of God. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”
Through the Holy Spirit whom God has given you, he has revealed to you the mystery of Christ as the Son of God and Saviour of the world—and your Saviour. He is your Saviour in your struggles to comprehend his ways. He is your Saviour when you ask: “How can these things be?” He is your Saviour when you feel lousy about not measuring up to God. He is your Saviour when you are cautious about being seen with him. He is your Saviour when the turbulence of life causes you to look upwards, at the Son of Man lifted high, to see that God’s ways are not our ways, thanks be to him.
You have been born anew, by water and the Spirit, to look up to the Son of Man lifted high, to believe in him, and to trust in his perfect work and his precious blood as what is needed for you to see the Kingdom of God, and to hear his promise as true for you: For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but to save the world through him.” Amen.
