11/19/06 The Son Of God Pt. 1

We are going to look this morning

at what is one of the most remarkable personal interviews

that ever took place between Jesus and another person.

It is an interview, portions of which have been quoted more often

than any other interview in history.

It is the interview that took place late one evening

between Jesus and a man of extreme social, political, and economic prominence,

a man named Nicodemus,

a man who was probably the third richest man in Jerusalem at the time the interview took place,

a man whose hunger for the truth

drove him to take significant risks to find that truth.

Remarkably, the entire interview

took just over two minutes.

But in those two minutes

Jesus communicated to Nicodemus

everything he needed to know

for the transformation that would alter his life forever.

We are going to walk through that interview step-by-step,

and see if we can better understand

why it had such a powerful impact on Nicodemus.

It’s recorded for us in the first 21 verses of John chapter 3.

We saw last week

that Nicodemus was a man of tremendous social and political power,

a man who was a member of the inner circle of the ruling class in Israel.

But he was also a man

whose decision to contact Jesus

placed him in direct opposition

with the otherwise unanimous decision of his fellow rulers.

This interview took place

during Jesus’ first public presentation of Himself in Jerusalem,

a presentation that began by His explosive confrontation

with those involved in the greed and corruption

that was so much a part of the temple system at that time.

He blasted onto the scene,

claimed for Himself absolute authority,

drove the thieves out of the temple,

and publicly declared war on all those who abused their positions of power in the nation.

And just so we understand what was happening here,

keep in mind that social, political, and religious power in first century Israel were synonymous.

This was a profoundly religious nation,

one in which those who held positions of religious authority

were at the top of the ruling class.

Do you remember what happened

during those final hours prior to Jesus’ execution?

Do you remember who came to arrest him?

It wasn’t the secular police,

it was the temple guards.

And when He was placed on trial for His life,

where did they take Him?

Not to some secular Israeli court,

but to the high priest.

And the accusation that resulted in His being sentenced to death

was the accusation that He claimed to be the Son of God.

It was not politics but religion that brought about His crucifixion,

and Nicodemus was deeply involved

in the highest levels of the religious power structure in the nation.

John tells us at the beginning of this interview

that Nicodemus came to Jesus at night.

And the reason was obvious.

He didn’t want to be seen.

He didn’t want anyone to know

that he was seeking out any contact

with this Person who had been declared th enemy of the nation.

But Nicodemus’ hunger for the truth

was even greater than his fear of the consequences of pursuing that truth.

And that right there, my friends,

is frequently one of the first huge signs in our lives

of the working of the Spirit of God within us.

You see, none of us ever move toward God without consequences,

and some of those consequences

will disrupt our lives to the very core.

From a human point of view,

God’s presence in our lives

simply messes up everything.

Rarely does He seem to share

the same priorities for our lives that we do.

The driving forces in our lives without God

usually focus around whatever feels good,

whatever is easiest,

whatever seems to be the most fun,

whatever brings in the most money,

whatever makes us look good to our friends.

But He seems far more interested

in creating for us a life of true significance,

a life built upon moral strength and stability,

a life in which choices are made

not on the basis of what’s easiest or what feels the best

but rather on the basis of what’s right - no matter what the cost,

and what truly communicates love to those around us.

He seems to be far more concerned about making us strong in character

than about making us popular,

and He tells us that fighting for the health and growth and success of those we love

is infinitely more important

than fighting against those who have wronged us.

And most of all,

when we choose to grant Him entrance into our lives

He does not and will not come to us simply as a nice cozy spiritual resource

from whom we can draw strength when things get a little rough.

Rather, when He comes

He does so as God

with the assumption that He has both the right and the authority

to assume leadership in our lives.

And any honest move we ever make toward our Creator

brings with it consequences.

We know this truth instinctively in our spirits,

and only the working of the Spirit of God in our lives

can ever give us the courage,

or the willingness to follow through.

Of course Jesus knew that about Nicodemus.

Logically,

socially,

financially there were so many reasons why he should never have come.

And yet he did,

not publicly at first,

but still he came.

And when he came

he began the conversation by saying,

"Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him."

And Jesus responded to him by saying,

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

Now I know that we typically view that statement

as Jesus’ invitation to this man that he be born again.

But I honestly don’t think that was what was happening here.

I think Jesus was offering Nicodemus

a powerful affirmation

that the Spirit of God was already at work in his life.

I mean, look at that exchange.

Nicodemus has just opened the conversation

by telling Jesus that, on the basis of what he has seen,

he is already absolutely certain

that Jesus is from God.

Which was, of course,

exactly the opposite of what everyone else in Nicodemus’ world was saying.

And to paraphrase what I believe Jesus says to him in response,

I hear Him saying to Nicodemus,

“Well done, Nicodemus! I want you to know that there is no way you could have seen the kingdom of God here on this earth except through the rebirth of your spirit.”

You see, Jesus is not talking about Nicodemus seeing the kingdom of God when he dies,

He’s talking about him seeing it here and now.

When Nicodemus recognized Jesus as being from God

he was seeing the unseen world,

he was seeing the kingdom of God here and now.

And here again, nothing has really changed.

That same kingdom of God that Nicodemus saw two thousand years ago

surrounds us today.

And just as it was in fact the real world then,

and everything else was just a passing illusion,

so it is today.

We just had a national election a few weeks ago.

Some people are pleased with the results,

while others are deeply troubled,

but nearly everyone views the outcome of that election

as being something that will have a dramatic affect on our world and our lives.

But after nearly sixty years of watching elections and political leaders in our nation

I have finally figured out at least one very significant thing.

There has never been a political leader

who has ever had the authority to determine for me my calling in life

or the power to prevent me from fulfilling it.

When the guy I voted for got into office

it was no easier for me to make correct moral choices in my own life,

and when the guy I didn’t vote for was elected

it was no more difficult to make those choices.

For you see, my calling in life,

and yours if you are a child of God,

does not come from Washington D C,

or from Juneau,

or from the Borough Building.

It comes directly from that other kingdom,

that unseen kingdom,

that real, eternal kingdom that surrounds each of us every day.

Or more correctly,

it comes from the King who rules that other Kingdom.

And the calling He’s given us

cannot ever be affected or altered in any way

by any election,

or any politician,

or any human agency of any kind.

Do you want to know what that calling is?

MIC 6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?

Is there anything that has happened in this past election

that has made it either easier or more difficult

for me to make daily choices of personal moral integrity?

Is there anything that has made it more difficult

for me to choose to reach out in kindness and compassion

to those that God brings into my life?

Is there anything in the entire political world

that has the power to prevent me

from walking humbly with my God?

Those are the things the truly matter,

yet they are things that can only be seen and understood

by those who have eyes to see the kingdom of God around us.

And that ability comes to us

only through what Jesus described as our being born again.

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

Now, I know I’m getting a little side-tracked here,

but I don’t want to leave this

until I’m sure you understand what I’m saying.

I’m not just talking about developing a spiritual side to our lives.

I’m talking about seeing life as it really is.

We are so conditioned to believing

that we can determine whether or not something is “real”

on the basis of our five senses.

If I can see it,

or touch it,

or hear it,

or taste it,

or smell it then it is “real”.

And if I cannot

then it’s not real.

Do you know what our senses are?

They’re simply the hardware that allow us to connect with one of the systems around us.

I picked up a new laptop this past summer

and I took it with me when Sandee and I went outside for Anabelle’s birth a few weeks ago.

We spent some time sitting in airports on that trip,

and in one of them I took out my computer and turned it on.

And to my surprise

as soon as I booted it up

a message came on the screen telling me that a wireless network connection had been found

and I could now connect to the internet.

If I would have had my old computer

I could have turned it on

and as far as I would have known

the only computer world that existed

was the one on my hard drive.

But once I had the hardware I needed,

a whole new and infinitely greater world became “real” to me.

Our senses provide us with the hardware we need

to communicate with what we have come to refer to as the physical world around us.

But when we enter this physical world at birth

our relationship to the Kingdom of God

is just like my old computer’s relationship to that wireless network.

We have not got the “hardware” we need

in order to see it or to interact with it.

That’s what Jesus was telling Nicodemus

when He told him,

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

He wasn’t telling him that he couldn’t go to heaven when he died,

He was telling him that without that rebirth

he simply could not see the reality of what was all around him.

And it’s not surprising

that at first Jesus’ words made no sense at all to Nicodemus.

And so he responded,

"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?"

And I have to tell you, I do love that response from Nicodemus.

I love the transparent honesty that motivated it.

I love seeing a man

whose hunger for the truth

and craving to understand

freed him from the pseudo sophistication that we so often characterize as being “adult”.

If you were to take most adults in our world today

and place them into a similar conversation with a person

that they recognized as being a significant religious teacher,

and then that religious teacher said to them, “You must be born all over again...”,

most of us would probably respond by saying something like,

“Oh yes! I know what you mean.

You’re talking about the rebirth of my inner spirit, aren’t you.

You’re talking about the regeneration of my true being at the soul level.

Yes...yes, of course I see what you’re saying.”

And of course we wouldn’t really see what they were saying at all,

but neither would we risk a level of honesty and vulnerability

in which we would admit it.

During the early years of our church fellowship

Sandee and I supplemented our income through managing apartments.

And I can remember one appointment I had to show a unit

at which a lady in her late 20's or early 30's showed up

along with a second lady about ten years younger.

I took them up to the unit and showed them around,

and watching the two of them during my little tour

was the most fascinating experience.

From the very beginning

it seemed more as if the older lady was not looking at the unit

so much as she was attempting to sense it’s aura.

Then, when we went into the bedroom to look around,

all of the sudden the older lady stopped,

and held out her hands,

and got this rather glazed look in her eyes and said,

“Oh no, this will never do. There were some very unhappy people in here.”

And instantly this look of awestruck worship and admiration

came over the younger lady’s face.

You could tell she felt honored

to be the faithful disciple of such a one as this -

a person who was so in tune with the world of the spirit

that she could sense the troubled auras of those who had passed this way before.

I didn’t say anything at the time,

partly because I couldn’t process what she’d just said fast enough

so that I could come up with an intelligent response,

and partly because I still hoped they would rent the apartment,

but looking back on that incident

I wish so much that I would have responded by saying,

“Well of course there have been unhappy people in here.

There have been unhappy people at one time or another

in every apartment I manage

because apart from the grace of Jesus Christ poured out on us

and His healing, redemptive work in our lives

most people live most of their lives profoundly unhappy.”

But I didn’t say that,

and in part at least

I didn’t say it because at the time I lacked the honesty,

and the vulnerability,

and the courage that we see in Nicodemus.

You see, his hunger for the truth

was so intense

that he was willing to risk looking foolish and sounding stupid

in the presence of Jesus.

And I would wish for you that same courage.

When someone says something to you about God that you don’t understand,

tell them you don’t understand it.

When someone says to you, “Just have faith!”,

if you don’t understand what that means,

don’t smile and nod,

ask them.

“What in the world does that mean?

How do I do that?”

When someone quotes a Bible verse telling you that you’re saved by grace,

or that God works all things together for good,

or that nothing can separate us from the love of God,

if what you hear doesn’t make sense to you, tell them.

And if your response sounds as tactless

as Nicodemus saying to Jesus,

“So what? Are your telling me I’m suppose to be crammed into my mother’s womb again?”,

then so be it.

I’m certainly not saying you’ll get answers that satisfy,

any more than Nicodemus did in his conversation with Jesus.

But I am saying that we will never find what we hunger for

until our longing for truth

exceeds our fear of looking foolish.

And then, before I close for the morning,

I want to say just a little more

about what we can expect to see

when we start seeing the Kingdom of God around us.

Part of the answer to that

is given to us in this very passage.

When Nicodemus saw the Kingdom of God,

the first thing he saw

was Jesus Christ for who He really was - God’s communication of Himself to us.

And that is the doorway,

the only doorway into the Kingdom of God.

JOH 14:6 "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.”

Does that sound terribly narrow?

Does it sound politically and socially incorrect?

Does it seem harsh and narrowminded

to suggest that there are not many paths to God,

and if we are sincere and honest in our pursuit of Him

then any path we choose is equally valid?

Well, if there was any way in which man could find his way to God,

then I would agree.

But the truth is,

the road doesn’t go that way,

no road does.

You see, we have a huge problem,

a great gulf between us and our Creator.

He is absolutely holy,

and we are not.

And no matter what we attempt to do on this side of the chasm that separates us from Him,

it cannot, will not ever make us pure.

Good deeds do not erase bad ones,

righteous acts cannot remove our sins.

And all roads do not ultimately lead to God.

For those who are honest,

and there aren’t many,

all roads lead ultimately

to the terrifying recognition

of the gulf that separates us from God - the gulf of our own unrighteousness.

And yet,

(ROM 5:8) ... God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

We couldn’t reach Him,

so He reached out to us,

and offered us the only adequate solution,

His death in our place for our sinfulness.

And entrance into the Kingdom of God always begins at exactly the same place for each of us,

the recognition that Jesus Christ is God’s perfect and final communication of Himself to us.

But that’s just the doorway in.

Once we begin to see the Kingdom of God around us,

we will begin to see this life as we’ve never seen it before.

It doesn’t happen instantly, by any means.

In truth, it is a process that, having begun,

continues on throughout the rest of our lives.

And at first it’s not unlike stepping outside and discovering that we are engulfed in a dense fog.

At first we see almost nothing.

But then, gradually we begin to see things we didn’t even know were there.

We see the people around us as we’ve never seen them before.

They begin to matter to us

and we find ourselves looking past their external facades

and seeing their needs and the desperate hunger within their souls.

And we begin to see morality as we’ve never seen it before,

not as a duty to be fulfilled,

but rather as a prize to be won,

a prize of great value indeed.

We even begin to see the things in the physical world around us in a whole new way.

We begin to think in terms of stewardship rather than possession.

The things we possess,

rather than becoming sources of validation or evidences of our significance,

increasingly become simply tools loaned to us for a brief time,

tools with which we can more effectively accomplish

real good in the lives of those entrusted into our care.

And then there is the compassion thing.

We cannot see the Kingdom of God around us

without also beginning to see the pain and the need in the lives of others,

and what we see creates within us a true compassion,

and a longing to reach out and help, and heal.

Nicodemus had only begun to see the Kingdom of God,

but he had begun.

And Jesus wanted him to know what was happening and why.

And so He responded to Nicodemus’ opening words

by taking him right to the heart of the matter.

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

And next week we’ll see where this interview goes next.