Sermon Tone Analysis

*John 3:1-16*

*New Beginnings*

 

“Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.’

Jesus answered him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’  Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old?

Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?’

Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, 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 the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?

Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.

If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

And 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, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”[1]

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ou have undoubtedly at some point in life found yourself wishing you could begin again.

Perhaps you became disappointed in your career, realising that you had not accomplished all that you would have hoped to accomplish.

Perhaps you just had a heated argument with your spouse and in a fit of self-pity you groused to yourself about life would have been different if someone else had shared your life.

Likely, you were disappointed and found yourself wishing you could start over in life.

We age, and aspirations that once glowed brightly fade into distant memories.

Training and careers that at one time loomed large on our horizon fade into a past marked with multiplied regrets.

It is somewhat amazing to note that wishing to begin again is not restricted to those who have attained advanced age.

Youth are perhaps as prone to wish for another chance, a new beginning, as are their elders.

Life is a flowing stream and the moments go by quickly, never to be repeated.

Life is defined by opportunities, many of which we create ourselves.

Whether the opportunities are seized or missed is dependent upon our decisions at the time of opportunity.

Seldom do we have a realistic expectation of beginning again.

However, I am convinced that we can begin again.

We can have a second chance.

Especially can we have a second chance at life that will fulfil our inmost, often unspoken, desires.

Life is to be lived boldly; we are created with an adventuresome spirit that longs to see what lies over the next mountain, always reaching for the next great challenge.

It is only as we stifle that spirit of infectious curiosity and desire to find what lies beyond the next horizon that we become senescent and curiosity grows quiescent, dead at twenty-five and buried at eighty-five.

There lies within each individual a “God-shaped” void that can be filled only through intimate knowledge of the True and Living God.

Those who fill that void are equipped to live adventurously, exuberantly—living confidently and energetically, living a life that the Master described as “abundant” [see *John 10:10*].

The message of life delivered through the Word of God has been entrusted to us as Christian so that we can quench the spiritual thirst of each person willing to receive the message we bear.

A church of the Living God should be marked with a spirit of adventure as the congregation advances Christ’s Great Kingdom.

Jesus spoke of this life of adventure and joy on one occasion when He was approached by a Jewish leader.

That interview Nicodemus sought set the stage for the transformation of his life, and his exchange with the Master became the setting for what is undoubtedly the best known of all Bible verses.

Join me in a study of the account that the Evangelist John provides in the third chapter of the Gospel bearing his name.

*Playing it Safe in the Religion of the Fathers* — “Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.’

Jesus answered him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’  Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old?

Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?’

Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.

So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’”

In the text, Nicodemus is clearly presented as a man who was “playing it safe.”

The text identifies him as a “ruler of the Jews,” a member of the Jewish Ruling Council, the highest legal, legislative, judicial body among the Jews at that time.

One did not become a member of the Sanhedrin through taking risks; rather, one was elevated to this position through avoiding threats to those holding power.

Just so, one does not usually advance in politics through taking risks.

Since churches tend to become political in their governance with the passage of time, it is perhaps inevitable that ultimately people are elevated to leadership to be caretakers of */what is/*, instead of becoming dreamers of */what can be/*.

People often complain about the “lack of vision,” but visionaries are usually shunned or stoned in their lifetime for espousing their dreams and working to transform what is into what can be.

Thoreau was undoubtedly correct when he wrote that “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”

His conclusion is that they “go to the grave with the song still in them.”

Though we cannot advocate shirking responsibility, neither dare we argue that we must resign ourselves to marching in place for the duration of days.

Those whom we call great are men and women who live boldly, pushing the boundaries of life as we know it.

What was Nicodemus’ purpose in engineering a secret meeting with the Master?

Jesus constituted a problem for the religious rulers of the Jews.

He challenged them, publicly holding them accountable for the truth they professed to guard.

They were increasingly agitated because He did not recognise their importance and failed to acknowledge the validity of their multiplied rituals.

Consequently, they were intent on getting rid of Him because He threatened their continued hold on power.

John records, “The Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God” [*John 5:18*].

Later, he writes, “After this Jesus went about in Galilee.

He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him” [*John 7:1*].

Jesus’ mere existence threatened the Jewish leaders.

Jesus had spoken of the challenge of righteousness, of the need to be disciplined for those following Him; and most of those who casually followed turned away and no longer followed Him [see *John 6:60-66*].

He did not make them feel good about themselves and He admonished them to excel in godliness.

“After this,” the leadership of the Jews were determined to kill Him.

He did not play by their rules and His message was far too demanding.

Rather than face His call to follow the teaching blessed by the Father, the power brokers sought to rid themselves of the One they saw as the root of their discomfiture.

Nothing much as changed in the ensuing two millennia.

Perhaps Nicodemus was truly curious to understand Jesus’ teaching.

More likely, he sought affirmation of his own position.

From my reading of the pericope, I believe that Nicodemus was attempting to build his self-esteem—to make himself feel good about who he was and about what he taught.

Aware of the discussions among the religious leaders, Nicodemus dared not approach Jesus openly.

Instead, he came to Him covertly, at night to interview the one who at once intrigued him and repelled him.

Actually, we do not know the precise reason Nicodemus approach the Lord.

Having opened his conversation with fawning flattery, the teacher in Israel never quite got around to saying what was on his mind.

“Rabbi,” began Nicodemus, “we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

He addresses Jesus as “Rabbi,” acknowledging that He was recognised as a teacher in Israel.

Then, he continues by conceding that Jesus has been sent from God.  Whether Nicodemus spoke from conviction at this point or whether he was being disingenuous is uncertain.

What is certain is that Jesus treated his approach as an opportunity to draw the Jewish sage out of the safety of his sheltered world and into the excitement of real life.

Jesus did this by addressing the truly great need in Nicodemus’ life.

One recent translation has captured the force of Jesus words quite clearly.

“I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”[2]  Jesus used a word that could have a double meaning.

The word */ánōthen/* could mean either “again” or “from above.”

This is a favourite technique employed by John in the Fourth Gospel, and it is ignored in almost all translations available to us in this day.

He uses the word five times [*John 3:3, 7*; *3:31*; *19:11* and *23*].

In the latter three cases, the context makes clear that Jesus meant “from above.”

Here, it could mean either, but the primary meaning intended by Jesus is “from above.”

Jesus was speaking of a second birth—a spiritual rebirth.

Nicodemus apparently understood it the other way, which explains his reply, “How can a man be born when he is old?

Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

Nicodemus was locked into the fleeting faux safety of this present, dying world, and he therefore failed to grasp immediately what Jesus was saying.

If I am generous in my estimate of Nicodemus, I would say that he accepted Jesus’ words literally, failing to see that instead of speaking of iterative physical births, Jesus was speaking of a spiritual birth necessary to enter into the Messiah’s Kingdom.