Bible Passage: John 3:1-17
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: March 5, 2023

Bulletin March 5, 2023

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

I don’t know if you caught it a moment ago, but in our text both Jesus and Nicodemus recognize the other as a “teacher.”  The first words out of Nicodemus’ mouth are, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher…” (v. 2)  Nicodemus calls Jesus “teacher.” And Jesus will do the same to Nicodemus.  Later in the text Jesus says to Nicodemus, You are the teacher of Israel. (v. 10)  Reminds me of two doctors meeting.  They greet one another,  “Doctor…”  “Doctor…”

But as these two teachers meet, it is clear this is not a meeting of equals.  One clearly outpaces the other.  It is also clear one of the teachers needs further instruction.  And he gets it.  He gets an AP, post-doctoral class on the Kingdom of God!  And that is what this text is really all about:  A Teacher of Israel is Schooled by The Teacher from Heaven.

What do we know about Nicodemus?  We know he was a Pharisee.  He belonged to that uber-zealous, ultra-righteous group.  He was also a member of that seventy-member ruling body of Israel called the Sanhedrin.  The fact that Jesus later calls him Israel’s teacher may indicate that Nicodemus himself was a respected rabbi among the people.  Nicodemus had “chops.”

But something was agitating Nicodemus.  He comes to Jesus at night and says, 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. (v. 2)  This is early in Jesus’ ministry.  He is in Jerusalem for the Passover and he has been performing many miracles.  Nicodemus has taken notice!  Perhaps he has even heard Jesus say, Repent, because the kingdom of heaven is near (Matthew 4:17).  Nicodemus is a teacher.  He can do the “math.”  Things are beginning to add up! The Kingdom of God may be upon them!

Time for a lesson from the Teacher from heaven.  Jesus says, Amen, amen, I tell you:  Unless someone is born again [or, “from above”], he cannot see the kingdom of God. (v. 3)  We have to admire this in Jesus.  He doesn’t play games; he doesn’t schmooze.  He doesn’t engage in polite pleasantries just because Nicodemus has access to the faculty lounge at the U of Jerusalem.  Jesus’ answer to Nicodemus would upend and unsettle Nicodemus!  He was a Pharisee!  Likely sitting there that night decked out like a peacock.  Wearing his little “Scripture-box” on his forehead – called a phylactery.  Wearing a prayer shawl with extra-wide tassels so that everyone would notice his piety.  The appearance of the Pharisee screamed, “Look at me!  I am a holy man!”  Jesus’ words to Nicodemus said, “You are so deeply flawed there is nothing you can DO to enter the Kingdom of God.  You’ve got to BE someone different!  You need a rebirth!”  The Pharisee swallowed hard.  “Be born again?  Can a man enter into the womb again when he is geriatric?”  The Teacher from heaven explains,  Amen, Amen, I tell you:  Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God! (v. 5)

 The birth of which Jesus speaks is the birth of water and the Spirit.  That sounds like baptism-talk, doesn’t it?  That’s because it is!  Let’s remember, at this time, Nicodemus would think about the baptism John the Baptist was doing.  It was a baptism  of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  It was a baptism the Pharisees rejected.  Jesus says this baptism is a means of being reborn into the Kingdom of God because the Holy Spirit works in it!  Jesus’ words remind us of the way our Baptism is described in the Bible.  It is a washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. (Titus 3:15)  For many of you, when you were baptized as a baby, it was your “rebirth” into the Kingdom of God!  The need for this rebirth is emphasized by Jesus:  Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh.  Whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. (v. 6)  Sinful mommies and sinful daddies give birth to sinful babies.  Those sinful babies are reborn as children of God’s Kingdom in Holy Baptism!

Nicodemus’ head is spinning, like a college student cramming for a calculus exam.  Jesus tells him to stop trying to figure it all out!  The Teacher from heaven tells Nicodemus to think about the wind.  You don’t know where it comes from.  You can’t say, “The next breeze is coming from that direction!  And the wind that just blew through my hair is now going to turn northeast.”  Here’s what you know:  “There’s wind!  I heard it!”  Jesus’ point?  Don’t try to figure out the working of the Holy Spirit!  Just know, he works.  The evidence is all around us in the people who are in the kingdom of God.

Jesus will reprove Nicodemus a little bit.  He will say, “My dear Nicodemus, you are supposed to be Israel’s teacher, and you don’t know about the work of the Holy Spirit!  These things are the A-B-C’s and 1-2-3’s of the Kingdom.  How are you going to believe if I get into deep theology?”  He calls upon Nicodemus to believe what he is saying.  He is the Teacher who has come down from heaven!  He has teacher-credentials no one else can touch!

And then Jesus gives Nicodemus one more lesson.  And once again, the Teacher from heaven will teach it to Nicodemus in such a way that he will get it.  Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (v. 15)  Jesus came down from heaven so that he could be lifted up.  Jesus uses a story that a Pharisee like Nicodemus would know well.  It was the time when the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness.  The Lord had sent poisonous snakes into the camp to discipline his whiny, complaining people.  Many people died of snakebite.  They begged for help.  So the Lord told Moses to put a bronze snake up on a pole and instruct the people that whenever anyone was bitten by a snake, they should look at the snake and they would live!  So Jesus came here to be lifted up on a cross.  Any and every person snake-bit with the venom of sin can look to him in faith, and live!  Live now, and eternally!  Here is lesson #1 in the curriculum of heaven!  God loved the world and sent Jesus so we can have eternal life!

A teacher of Israel went to school with the Teacher from heaven that night.  We might ask, “Did Nicodemus learn anything?  Was he ever baptized and born of water and the Spirit?”  Don’t know for sure about baptism.  It is interesting, immediately after this incident with Nicodemus we are told, After this, Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside where he spent some time with them and was baptizing. (John 3:22)  We do know this.  In John 7, the Sanhedrin convenes and is talking about what to do about the “Jesus problem.”  It is Nicodemus who speaks up for Jesus!  He is roundly shamed by the other members.  But most significantly, on the day the Son of Man was lifted up on the cross like the bronze serpent, when the time came to take Jesus down and bury him for his short stay in the tomb, Nicodemus was one of two who asked for the body of Jesus.  He loved Jesus!  He was a man reborn!  He had seen the Kingdom of God through faith in God’s Son.  Eternal life was his!  And ours, through Jesus!

Amen.