12/3/06 Son of God Pt. 3

We stopped in the middle of a thought last week

      and I promised you that today we’d finish up what we started.

If you’re new with us,

      or if the holiday season is driving everything else from your mind,

            I’ll spend a few minutes getting us back into that study

                  before we complete what we started.

We’re involved in a study of the forth book of the New Testament,

      the one that offers us the good news about Jesus Christ

            as seen through the eyes of the Apostle John.

And so far our study has taken us into the first half of the 3^rd chapter.

For several weeks now

      we have been looking closely at a late night personal interview

            that took place between Jesus

                  and a man named Nicodemus.

We’ve see that Nicodemus came to Jesus late at night

      because he didn’t want to be seen,

            because even at this early point in Jesus’ public ministry

                  He was already so offensive to the national leadership

                        that publicly identifying oneself with Jesus

                              was a very dangerous thing to do.

And before we finish our study of that interview,

      I want to step back just a little

            and share with you a realization

                  that has helped me tremendously

                        both in my own relationship with my Lord

                              and in the choices I make each day about how I invest

                                    the time and resources my Lord has entrusted into my care.

You see, in some respects

      the most remarkable thing about this interview between Jesus and Nicodemus

            is not what was said,

                  but rather that the interview took place at all.

And one of the great gifts that John gives us through his Gospel

      is the way in which he allows us to see

            the daily priorities of Jesus when He was here.

Here we are, just at the beginning of the 3^rd chapter,

      and look what we’ve seen so far.

Following his introductory words about Christ

      in which he tells us who He is, where He came from, and why He came,

the very next thing John does

      is to lead us through a number of personal interviews

            that took place between Jesus and certain individuals.

He began with Jesus’ encounter with John the Baptist.

Well, that one would make sense to us, of course,

      because John was by far the most significant personality in Israel at the time.

But then John goes on to allow us to see Jesus

      as He was involved in a number of other personal encounters.

We see Him involved in a private conversation

      with an unknown and socially unimportant young fisherman named Andrew.

Then we see involved in another personal exchange

      between Himself and Andrew’s brother, Simon.

And then, the next day we see Jesus setting off by Himself

      to find another social nobody, a man named Philip.

And John is careful to make sure we know

      that Jesus didn’t just happen to bump into Philip

            while He was in the process of doing some other really important things,

but He apparently blocked out a full day of His very short time with us

      to find this man

            and then to build a friendship with him.

And then, the next thing we see

      is Jesus involved yet again

            in another personal exchange between Himself

                  and a man named Nathaniel.

And what John helps us to see

      with a clarity that none of the other Gospel writers do

            is that this kind of contact between Jesus and specific individuals

                  was not an exception,

                        but rather a determined pattern in His presentation of Himself to the world.

Obviously,

      it is that exact pattern

            that we once again see being lived out

                  in this late-night interview with Nicodemus.

I’ve already warned you

      that I will be relying frequently throughout this study of John

            on some of the discoveries I made

                  when I was working on The Fisherman a few years ago,

and this morning I want to share with you

      the only extended passage from the book

            that was never published.

I understand why the publisher didn’t want it included,

      and I believe they made the right call.

But at the same time

      even though the incident itself was the product of my imagination,

            the truth that it communicated is not.

In fact, it is a truth so vital to a correct understanding of our God

      that, if we fail to understand it,

            we will never be able to understand Him

                  or to relate to Him correctly.

So I want to share it with you this morning

      because it has a direct bearing

            on what I want us to see as we return to this study of Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus.

OK, this incident takes place

      on the first trip Jesus took

            with these few men we see Jesus reaching out to

                  in the last half of John chapter one.

Jesus invites them all to go with Him to that wedding at Cana

      that we have described for us in John chapter 2.

And this is what I imagined happened on the way.

Peter says...

      If only you could have joined us on one of those walks you would understand why I began this narrative by telling you it was not the way you think it was. That first trip together was typical. All of us were a little nervous, a little excited, and a lot unsure about what the rules were in our relationship with this man. Andrew and Philip, both earnest disciples of the Prophet John, certainly assumed their times with Jesus would follow similar patterns. The Prophet John was all business and teaching. He valued each of his disciples, but he seemed to value them most of all as faithful tools through whom he could more effectively disseminate his call for repentance to our nation. It was the MESSAGE that mattered most with John. In fact, he seemed to prefer being addressed as ‟The Messenger” even more than ‟The Prophet”, calling himself ‟A voice of one crying in the wilderness”. It was not surprising that Andrew and Philip, and to be honest, the rest of us too, kept waiting for Jesus to blast through with His message as well.

      But we soon learned it didn’t work that way with Him. To put it in a single statement, whereas John was most concerned with how his followers related to his message, Jesus was most concerned with how we related to Him. But please don’t misunderstand me here. I am not suggesting He wanted us to trot along at His side, hanging on His every word, with expressions of reverent awe and adoration on our faces. Far from it! It was clear from our first day together that what He valued most of all was our friendship. He obviously deeply enjoyed each of us. He really liked us.

      That little incident at the creek early in our journey may help you understand what I mean. At first we walked along almost in silence. I think we all felt we should find just the right question to ask Jesus, perhaps concerning something from the Law of Moses, or from one of the Prophets. It seemed like the type of thing He would want to talk about. He, on the other hand, commented about what a beautiful morning it was, then asked James and John how their fishing was going. I was walking next to the Master on His left, listening to James and John on His right as they gave a brief account of the last day’s catch. We started across a shallow creek, about knee deep, when suddenly I caught my foot on something and went crashing full length face first into the creek. The splash my massive bulk generated when I hit the water sprayed everyone and, of course, I was instantly soaked. Though I could never get Him to admit it, to this day I am convinced Jesus intentionally tripped me. For a few seconds there was a stunned silence while the six of us wondered how we should respond to such an event in the presence of Jesus. I rolled over in the water, spluttered a little, then looked up at the Master just in time to see Him begin to howl with the most contagious laughter I had ever heard. Instantly everyone else joined in. Jesus reached down for my hand and in the process whispered in my ear, ‟Well, Simon, it looks like ‛The Rock’ is a name that will fit you well for many reasons.”

      His obvious delight at seeing me sitting in the water and His whispered remark suddenly filled me with the impulse to discover how He felt about an early morning dip. I out-weighed Him by at least forty pounds and one sharp jerk brought Him sprawling down next to me. Instantly He bellowed out, ‟Bath time!”, grabbed John by the ankle and brought him down too.

      The water fight that followed ended with all of us thrashing around up to our necks in the middle of that silly little creek, howling and laughing until the tears streamed down our cheeks. When we finally dragged ourselves out of the water it was good to know it would be a warm day with a four hour walk in which to dry off before we got to the wedding.

The fact that our God

      chose to enter our lives in human form

            so that He could communicate Himself to us

                  is utterly remarkable itself.

But given that fact,

      no one would ever have expected Him

            to allot His time the way He did during those months when He was here.

We just naturally would have assumed

      that God would have involved Himself in God-sized issues.

We understand that business in the Old Testament

      with the thunder and the lightening on the mountain

            and the booming voice

                  and the tablets of stone being passed onto the human race.

That’s the kind of stuff we would expect from our Creator -

      big issues,

            big sound,

                  big assemblies in which thousands are addressed.

But what’s with all of this one-to-one stuff,

      all of these private, seemingly insignificant exchanges

            between individuals?

Maybe I can help us most easily understand what I’m seeing here

      by starting with our own lives.

Who do you have in your life right now that you love?

Maybe it’s a child or a teenager,

      a son or a daughter,

            a nephew or a niece,

                  a grandson or a granddaughter.

Now think back to their most recent big victory in their life.

Maybe it was an A on a spelling test,

      or getting a date with that person who really matters,

            or finally getting through that section on fractions in math.

Do you remember how it made you feel when they told you about it,

      their voice all excited,

            their eyes shining.

There they were, just for few minutes, feeling like life is really, really good.

And do you remember something else as well?

Do you remember the depth of joy you felt

      because of this victory in their lives.

Now I want you to take that victory,

      whatever it was,

            and pull it out of that child’s life

                  and then plug it into the entire mass of world events that have taken place.

Put it in there with the terrorist attack on 9-11,

      and the outcome of our most recent national election,

            and the signing of the peace treaty with Japan that ended the Second World War.

Now where, in logical importance in the flow of world events

      does that victory in that child’s life fit?

It’s nothing isn’t it.

It’s a speck of dust blowing in the wind.

It will have absolutely no impact on the course of human history

      in even the slightest.

And yet...

      and yet when that child stood there,

            telling you of his or her great victory,

                  with their eyes all shining

                        and their voice so excited,

it affected you more deeply

      than nearly every other event in the flow of history has ever affected you.

Now why is that?

Its because it isn’t the significance of the event,

      but rather the importance of the individual to you

            that determines how deeply it affects you.

And here is the truth that we never really dare allow ourselves to believe.

It is exactly the same way with our God.

It isn’t the significance of the event in the flow of human history,

      but rather the importance of the individual

            that determines it’s value in God’s economy.

And then let me add one more piece to the puzzle

      so that we can gain the full impact.

It isn’t the significance of the event in the flow of human history,

      but rather the importance of the individual

            that determines it’s value in God’s economy,

and every single individual

      is equally valued

            and equally loved by God.

Do you know what that means?

That means that the deep sadness you felt this past week,

      that sadness that no one else knew about

            touched your God deeply

                  because you touch Him deeply.

And that seemingly tiny personal victory that you achieved two days ago,

      that victory that no one else knew about,

            or cared about,

                  or even noticed,

that victory that will change nothing in the great flow of human history,

      that victory brought great joy to your God,

            because you bring great joy to your God,

                  and whatever touches you

                        touches Him as well.

I have friend who has allowed me to coach him through

      a time in his life when he sometimes faces hard choices,

            choices that no one else knows about.

I’ve given him my cell phone number

      and asked him to call me when he makes one of those choices.

And he does,

      and it helps

            because someone needs to know,

                  someone who cares.

Do you know why?

Because when someone knows

       it serves as a tiny mirror

            in which he can see reflected

                  the way his choices affect his God.

When you have tiny victories, or big ones

      I hope there’s someone in your life that you can tell,

            and I hope you do.

When I read the first half of this third chapter of John

      there is a great wealth of information I see there about my God.

But the biggest thing I learn,

      and the one that affects me the most deeply

            is the fact that this interview ever took place,

the fact that this confused, frightened man

      seeking out Jesus in the middle of the night

            mattered to the Lord.

Jesus didn’t tell him to come back in the morning.

He didn’t tell him to just listen to His next public lecture in the Temple.

What He did do

      is to sit down with him,

            and talk with him,

                  and listen to him,

                        and answer his questions,

and in the process tell him how much he mattered to his God.

No, He did more than that.

What He really did

      was to tell Nicodemus who he was really talking with,

            and then, through His actions and His words,

                  He told Nicodemus how much he mattered to Him.

And I believe it was that one piece of knowledge,

      more than all the rest put together

            that changed Nicodemus’ life forever.

I told you last week

      that there was something I have seen happening in this passage,

            or more correctly something that does not happen

                  that I have sort of tried to avoid pointing out

                        because I find it unsettling.

And yet, I could not be honest with you in my teaching

      unless I did.

In our progress through this interview

      we have seen Jesus feeding Nicodemus

            with crucial pieces of information.

And before I share with you what it is that concerns me,

      I want to complete that process.

Jesus began by telling Nicodemus

      about a whole other world that co-exists with this one,

            a world that He called the Kingdom of God.

And He told him that he would only be able to “see” the Kingdom of God

      through being born of the Spirit of God.

Then Jesus went on to tell Nicodemus

      that He, Jesus, had pre-existed with God prior to His entrance into this world,

            and that He had descended from heaven

                  in order to communicate God to the world.

But that isn’t where it stopped.

The next thing Jesus told Nicodemus

      is that He must be “lifted up” before the world,

            just as the serpent was lifted up by Moses before the Israelites in the Old Testament,

and then, just as all those who looked at the serpent received physical life,

      so all those who believe in Him will be given eternal life.

That’s where we stopped last week,

      but let me say before we go any farther

            that I think at this point in the interview

                  Nicodemus was even more confused than before it started.

But then Jesus concludes the interview

      with words that, though they didn’t clear up a lot of the confusion,

            they did do something else.

They revealed to Nicodemus

      what he most needed to know -

not the answers to his questions,

      but a clear vision into the very heart of God.

These are the words spoken by Jesus

      that ended that interview.

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God."

If we had no other written information about Christ than these six sentences,

      what we have here would be all that we would need.

If we had no more knowledge about our God than these six sentences,

      there is enough here

            to allow us to see Him exactly as He is.

There is a tremendous wealth of information in this passage,

      and none of it is obscure, or complicated, or difficult to understand.

Up to this point in Nicodemus’ interview with Jesus,

      Jesus was telling Nicodemus things

            that caused the man to say, “What was that again?”

                  “Could you explain that to me a little more clearly?”

                        “I don’t understand that, what do you mean?”

But in these final words spoken by Jesus

      everything was clear.

Jesus begins by doing something for Nicodemus

      that He rarely did for anyone when He was here -

He clearly, openly identified Himself as being the Son of God.

Nearly always Jesus referred to Himself as the son of man,

      clearly identifying His humanity,

            that He wasn’t an angel,

                  or some other supernatural being,

                        but that He really was a physical, flesh and blood man.

But He almost never openly identified Himself as the Son of God

      because He knew that was knowledge about Himself

            that each of us must discover on our own

                  under the careful working of the Spirit of God within us.

I can’t convince you that this man who lived 2000 years ago

      was really God Himself in human form.

Only the Spirit of God working within you

      can bring you to that truth.

And if you are willing to follow Him honestly,

      no matter what the consequences,

            that’s where He’ll take you.

And of course there are consequences.

Jesus reveled Himself openly to Nicodemus as the Son of God

      because He knew Nicodemus had already accepted that truth,

            he already believed it,

                  he had already been born again.

From there He went on to tell Nicodemus

      that God was doing what He was doing through Jesus

            for just one reason - because He loves us -

He loves us with a depth of love

      that drove Him to do whatever He could do

            in order to bring us back to Himself forever.

Then He tells Nicodemus

      that, from this time forward,

            Jesus Christ is the dividing line for the human race.

All that God requires from us

      is that we believe in Him -

that we believe He is God in human form,

      that we believe He was paying our sin debt in full forever through His death,

            and that He will receive us absolutely

                  if we come to Him with that simple faith.

And then Jesus concludes this remarkable interview with Nicodemus

      by revealing to him one more crucial piece of information.

There was a song that came out more than 30 years ago now

      that contained the line, “Why isn’t everybody singing Hallelujah!?”

I think that question

      must have been on Nicodemus’ mind

            at this point in his conversation with Jesus.

If what you’ve just said is true,

      then why isn’t the whole world singing Hallelujah?”

And Jesus wanted him to know why.

“...men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.”

No person just happens to reject the truth about Jesus Christ.

It happens because they have decided that the cost is too high.

You see, at first glance it seems as if the forgiveness of our sins

      and unconditional eternal acceptance by God

            is the most glorious thing a person could ever receive.

And it is.

But it comes with a price,

      and the price is HIM.

And we know that if we let Him in

      He will change everything forever.

And Jesus warns Nicodemus

      that most people will reject the offer

            because the price is too high...lest his deeds should be exposed.

Well, that ended the interview,

      an interview that changed Nicodemus’ life forever.

He was more than willing to pay the price,

      and in fact he’d made that decision before he even came.

But I told you that there was something about this passage

      that troubles me.

Once again I’ve taken too long to get us where I wanted us to go,

      but I promised I’d tell you this week what troubles me

            so I’ll conclude this morning by doing that

                  and then talk more about it next week.

This is obviously one of the key evangelistic passages in Scripture.

You must be born again...

      For God so loved the world... 

And yet Jesus didn’t end with an alter call,

      He didn’t end with trying to move Nicodemus to a point of decision or commitment.

Why didn’t Jesus do what we normally do.

Why didn’t He end this interview

      by saying, “Now, Nicodemus, do you believe in Me? Do you accept me as your Savior.”?

That question fascinates me enough

      so that I want us to spend a few minutes looking at it next week

            before we continue on with our study of John chapter 3.