Born of the Spirit
John 3:1-17
by Jim Westmoreland
I invite you to turn in your Bibles to John 3:1, as shown in your bulletin. The summer Olympic games are this summer in Beijing, China. I grew up watching the Olympics on ABC-TV’s Wide World of Sports with Jim McKay as the announcer. My most vivid memory about that program their introduction. As they showed a montage of sports clips, McKay would say, “Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport… the thrill of victory… and the agony of defeat… the human drama of athletic competition… this is ABC's Wide World of Sports!”
As McKay would get to the phrase, “the thrill of victory . . . and
the agony of defeat,” the screen would show Vinko Bogataj, a
Slovenian competing on the Yugoslavian ski-jumping team. As
he comes flying down the narrow and steep ski-jump, he falls
and starts tumbling at high speed—arms, legs and skiis flying in
all directions as he eventually falls off of the ski jump. Those of
you who have seen that clip, how many have seen in only once?
That would be hard, wouldn’t it. It is one of the most repeated
clips in TV history! The phrase, “the thrill of victory and the
agony of defeat,” ranks 27th on the list of the top 100 TV quotes
and catch phrases.
There is more to this story. As awful as things looked, Vinco Bogataj probably saved his own life that day. What we are not told is that a light snow had begun falling at the start of the event, and by the time Bogataj was ready for his third jump, he realized that the conditions had made the ramp too fast, and he would fly past the sloped landing area and would land hard on the flat area at the bottom. He attempted to lower his center of gravity and stop his jump, but instead lost his balance completely and rocketed out of control off the end of the ramp. We have watched him over and over again. Despite the ferocity of the crash, Bogataj suffered only a mild concussion.
Bogataj was very fortunate. Sometimes, we are given the opportunity to make decisions that can not only change our lives, but can save our lives!
Hear now, the word of Lord, John 3:1-17, “Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.’ Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?’
Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, “You must be born from above.” The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’ Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can these things be?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
‘Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.’”
Like Vinko Bogataj, the Slovenian ski-jumper, Nicodemus did something unexpected, something that could change his life, something that, as Jesus said, could save his life. Nicodemus was one of the religious elite. We are given two clues that describe him. One is that he was a Pharisee. Now, the Jews were not much different than we are because they had different parties, subgroups, “denominations,” within Judaism. Four groups come to my mind that are mentioned in the New Testament. There are Zealots, Essenes, Sadducees and Pharisees. To be a Pharisee involved a lot of study and discipline. They knew their Bible, the Law and the Prophets.
The second clue about Nicodemus is that he was also described as a leader of the Jews. Not all Pharisees were leaders, but Nicodemus was a leader, probably a member of the Sanhedrin, which was the ruling body of elders of the Jews, consisting of 71 members.
The Pharisees followed Jesus to argue with him, to trap him, to find fault with him. Nicodemus did something different. He came to Jesus, “at night” John tells us. Maybe it was because he had worked all day. The Sanhedrin met and heard cases every day but the Sabbath and feast days. Maybe, he had just had a long day, and he came after that. Or, maybe he came late, at night, on purpose. He didn’t come in the evening, which would have been earlier. He came at night. Maybe, it was to have some personal time with Jesus, after the crowds had gone home. An important person like Nicodemus probably would have wanted a more private conversation with Jesus, not just part of a crowd. Maybe, he came for all of those reasons, and he also may have come late so that everyone else wouldn’t know that he had come to talk to Jesus. It would not have been the politically correct thing to do, given his position as a leader and all.
Nicodemus comes with all of his questions. He compliments and recognizes Jesus as a great teacher, a rabbi, who has come from God. We, too, can come with our questions, even with our prejudices about what Jesus is like. What is most important is that we come, that we come to listen, and to talk with Him.
Nicodemus didn’t understand what Jesus was saying to him. Jesus said that “no one could see the Kingdom of God without being born again.” Nicodemus misunderstands what Jesus is saying. The Greek word, anothen, has three meanings. It can mean from the beginning, it can mean again meaning for a second time. And, it can mean from above, from God. All three meanings are in this word that Jesus used. At first, Nicodemus thought Jesus was saying something impossible, like being born physically again.
To be born again is to get a fresh, new start in our lives. We know very well that we have rebelled against God, that we have gone against our own conscience to do things that hurt others by our words and actions and that deceive others by not telling the truth.
In Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus two things are connected, being born of the Spirit and belief in the Son of God. As Jesus is talking with Nicodemus, He shares with him the words that many of us learned memorized as a child. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
We know that something did happen for Nicodemus when he met Jesus that night. John tells us in John 19:29 that, when Jesus died, Nicodemus brought for his body a mixture of myrhh and aloes, about a hundred weight. This was costly. It was also a very public sign of something that had occurred in his heart. Nicodemus had not only come to talk with Jesus, he had become a disciple of Jesus. He had come to understand what it meant to be born of the Spirit.
To decide to believe in Jesus is a personal decision that no one can make for us. As parents, we can teach our children about God, we can share what our faith means to us, but we cannot make our children have faith or want God for themselves. They must choose that for themselves. God has no grandchildren. We must all come to Jesus on our own. Every person must decide in their heart that they want to confess publicly that Jesus is the Son of God and ask Him to forgive us of our sins.
I don't know that Nicodemus got much understanding or definition for all of his questions. Sometimes Jesus doesn't deliver easy answers. What Nicodemus got was Jesus. He has come out of the darkness, seeking, probing, questioning, and in so doing he engages Jesus in one of the longest, most theologically revealing conversations in all of scripture.
So this morning, this second Sunday in Lent, I recommend that you take Nicodemus as your patron saint, especially any of us who may be confused by Jesus, or full of questions about who Jesus really is. I want you to take him as your model. Come in out of the dark. Go ahead and ask him whatever is on your mind. Use all of your God-given mental capacities to try to think about Jesus. Listen to him. And then, simply enjoy being with him. Give thanks that we have the sort of God who wants to be with us, who condescends to speak to us, who shares truth with us, even if we can't fully comprehend the wholeness of that truth, even if we can't define this God.
Now, I may surprise you by saying I don't think you have to meet Jesus in order to become a changed person. There are a lot of things that can effect transformation in our lives: Education. Books. Plays. The people we meet. Joining a 12-step program. Winning the lottery. Losing weight. Becoming a runner. Enlisting in military service. Having a baby.
But one thing is certain. I have never known anybody who met Jesus and wasn't changed by the meeting. So if you're wanting to start over and don't know how to do it or where to begin, you could do a lot worse than think about this. Jesus changes the water of the old life into the wine of the new. That's what the first Christians all discovered. That's the truth on which the church was built, and what it has stood for all these years, even when it has tended to forget.
I could tell you a lot of stories about people whose lives have been changed by meeting Jesus. But those are of less interest to you than your own life. You know if you're ready for a change, if you'd like to start over with a different attitude or a new orientation. If you are, you don't need other people's stories. You only need to step over the threshold into the change that's waiting for you. And you may want to say a little prayer, such as, "Lord, here I am; help me to become what you want me to be."
Dan Wakefield tells in his book, How Do We Know When It Is God?, about a friend of his, a woman named Ann Brower, who was a medical doctor and wanted to start over. She was on a journey of faith, trying to find what she was supposed to do, and was studying theology as the next step of her adventure. She carried with her a little prayer that Wakefield found helpful. This is the prayer. You might find it meaningful too.
"Lord, help me to believe in beginnings, to make a beginning, to be a beginning, so that I may not just grow old, but grow new each day to this wild, amazing life that you call me to live with the passion of Jesus Christ."
Not just growing old, but growing new each day. That's
something to ask, isn't it? And when we learn to grow that
way—newer each day—we become more and more aware of
how "wild" and "amazing" life really is, how filled with miracle
and mystery, how beautiful and touched by the hand of God.
And we know we are called by God to live "with the passion of
Jesus Christ". Not just to surrender to Christ as the Master, but
to live with his passion. To see life as he saw it, and want to
give ourselves to God as he did. That will help any of us to start
over, won't it? And to make our lives really count.
Will you follow him, even if you can't define him, even when you don't always understand him? Will you be born of the Spirit, born again, born from above, born for a new beginning? If you will walk with him, the promise is that He will walk with you, even as He welcomed Nicodemus that night. To be born of the Spirit is not in the understanding but in the following. Amen.
Century Christian Church, February 17, 2008 - Sermon by Jim Westmoreland
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