In the Light

John 3:1–21 NET

Now a certain man, a Pharisee named Nicodemus, who was a member of the Jewish ruling council,came to Jesus at night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus replied, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother’s womb and be born a second time, can he?” Jesus answered, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must all be born from above.’The wind blows wherever it will, and you hear the sound it makes, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus replied, “How can these things be?”Jesus answered, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you don’t understand these things?I tell you the solemn truth, we speak about what we know and testify about what we have seen, but you people do not accept our testimony.If I have told you people about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will 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.Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him. The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. Now this is the basis for judging: that the light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed. But the one who practices the truth comes to the light, so that it may be plainly evident that his deeds have been done in God.

I’m gonna get this out of the way up front; we’re not going to cover this whole passage this morning. There’s too much in here. It’s at least four different sermons. I don’t want to preach four different sermons, and I’m pretty sure you all don’t want to sit through four different sermons. So I’m going to stick with one sermon. But keep an eye on the church’s Facebook page this week, because there’s a pretty good chance you’ll be seeing some bonus content.

Now, all that said, let’s get to the best part of this story.

No, not the part about how God so loved the world God sent God’s only begotten son. We’ve heard that one before. Bonus content.

No, not the bit about being born again, or born from above. Bonus content.

No, not the part that talks about who’s condemned. I’m not even touching that one in the bonus content.

Actually, I think the best parts of this story are the very beginning, and the very end. Why do I think that? Because jokes are my favorite thing, and the beginning and ending of this story are hilarious.

Jesus is hanging out one night, doing his thing, relaxing after a long day of ticking off religious officials, when here comes one of those religious officials, let’s call him Nick, and Nick’s got questions. He’s sneaking into Jesus’ place at night because he doesn’t want any of the other religious officials to see him. It’s so very middle school of him. You know how in middle school, it was very important to only be seen with the right people? Maybe you remember having that one friend who you didn’t want anyone else to know you were friends with. Or maybe you’re like me, and you were that person who seemed to have friends in private, but they didn’t want to be seen with you in public. Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure that girlfriend I had who told me keeping our relationship secret would make it more exciting was really just trying to avoid being harassed by her friends… anyway, enough about me. In this story, Jesus is that unpopular kid, and Nicodemus is the one sneaking in to talk with him while nobody’s looking. So he comes creeping in around midnight. I couldn’t find it last time I was at my parents’ house, so maybe this is a figment of my imagination, but I have this vivid memory of reading this story as a child, and the illustration was of ol’ Nick climbing in through Jesus’ window in a black outfit. Because nothing says inconspicuous like wearing a ninja costume in first century Palestine.

Jesus and Nick get to talking, and Jesus just starts dropping knowledge left and right. He tells Nick all these mysterious things about the way God works, and Nick is confused and doesn’t understand a word of it, but he’s just eating it up. Jesus is everything he hoped he would be. He sure is glad he decided to take a risk and come learn from the guy in secret.

And then Jesus decides to wrap up their interview with this chestnut. “This is the basis for judging: that the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed. But the one who practices the truth comes to the light, so that it may be plainly evident that his deeds have been done in God.”

Sadly, John doesn’t offer Nick’s response to Jesus’ well-crafted statement. Which is too bad, because I’m sure it was quite the scene. I can just imagine Nick trying to process what he’s being told here.

“So… so what you’re saying, Jesus, is that some people act one way when they think nobody sees what they’re doing, but act a very different way when their actions are visible, and that this is a bad thing? But, that’s ridiculous! It doesn’t make any kind of sense! Who would do such a thing? Surely people must know that they can’t be one way in private and another in public for very long without someone noticing and pointing it out that they - oh. Oh. I see what you did there. Good one, Jesus. You got me. Oh, hey, I just remembered, I’ve got this… thing… that I have to do so I’m going to… go… do that… that thing. Uh, nice talking with you. We should really do this again some time!”

Now, this is the only time Jesus and Nicodemus will ever speak to one another, at least as far as John records. But this fairly minor character undergoes some interesting development in the remainder of the book. In chapter 7, the ruling officials of Israel want to condemn Jesus to death, and it’s Nick who speaks up and reminds his colleagues that there would have to be a trial first. The bad PR they’d get from such a trial is enough to dissuade them. Nick isn’t yet public about being pro-Jesus, but he’s getting there. Then he disappears again, but he pops back up at almost the very end of John’s story. After Jesus is crucified, it is our old friend Nick - along with some others - who sees to it that Jesus is placed in a proper grave, rather than being thrown in a ditch like a common criminal. Jesus’ words stuck with him all that time, and after seeing just how low his colleagues in the legislature are willing to stoop, he finally takes a stand with Jesus, in the light of day.

Integrity. It’s a struggle we all must go through. When nobody’s watching, there will be temptation to behave in certain ways we wouldn’t dream of with an audience. By the same token, it’s much easier to stick to personal convictions when we’re not surrounded by folks who disagree with us. But if we want to represent Jesus, we must constantly seek to be the same person with the same character in private; behind closed doors; in the dark of the night; that we are in the light of day, when all the world is watching. Who are you when nobody’s watching? Are you ready for the world to see?

I’m talking about our deeper character.