The Blessing of Love

Nicodemus was introduced as a man of the upper class, conservative in his beliefs, and very interest in the teachings of Jesus.

He was a Pharisee… a strict religious sect of Judaism. He was a member of the Sanhedrin, who would be considered the supreme Judicial council for Judaism, with 71 members.

He had heard Jesus speak and saw him do some amazing things, which made him believe that he could only do those things if God were with him!

He had a great deal of respect for Jesus, calling him Rabbi, which means teacher. We find out later in the Gospel of that he became a defender of Jesus.

In His conversation we find one of the most well know passages of scripture,

John 3:16 NIV

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Jesus was very clear in stating that just as one enters this earth through natural birth, so too must a person be born in the Spirit, by the Spirit in order to enter into the Kingdom of God. Without it, there is no place for a person in God’s Kingdom.

To be born again; born in the Spirit is to born from Above, meaning a transformation of a person by the spirit of God, so that they are able to enter another world and adapt to its conditions. What Jesus is specifically talking about is entering into the Kingdom of Heaven!

The New Birth is conditioned on the repentance and confession of the individual in response to the appeal of God to turn to Him in Belief; by faith and allow the transformation of life to be given by the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Entrance into the Kingdom of God could not be achieved by legalism or outward conformity. It required an inner change; which come about by faith in Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

What Jesus is saying to Nicodemus, you may be a Jew; you may be a Pharisee, but the only way you can truly be a member of God’s family is by being born in the Spirit of God.

So for those listening today via radio or here in the congregation, this verse is the core of the gospel… what do we learn? What does it mean for us? How will the Gospel change your life?

Nicodemus’s question is found in verse 9, “How can this be?” He is looking for directions

How can it become his? How can it become yours?

First it is about God; God the Father, God the Son (Jesus) and God the Holy Spirit.

For God so loved the World...

God… Do you believe in God? Do you believe what God is teaching us through the Scriptures. By virtue of the fact that you are listening to this message, the answer is most likely yes. This question leads to the next which says, What do you believe about God?

Who is he? What is he about? It is about belief - your belief. Belief is about accepting something as it is stated!

John began his Gospel about what was in the beginning.

John 1:1–5 NIV

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

The Word , according to became flesh… Jesus was born; not by natural conception, but by the miraculous conception of the Holy Spirit.

The Word was with God in the beginning because the ‘Word’ was God. This means that Jesus is God. The evidence of Jesus being in the beginning, began at creation. Do you believe The Bible; that God created the heavens and the earth?

So what Jesus is saying to Nicodemus he is saying to us… do you believe in me? do you believe me? Nicodemus wanted too but he said, I need a little help.

Who were the witnesses to the birth of Jesus? Joseph? Maybe, maybe not… was it a mid wife? maybe maybe not… was it a cow or a donkey or a few sheep? maybe maybe not… The point being, we only know from the Bible, that there is a God and that God gave his “One and Only Divine Son.”

When we turn to other Gospels, Matthew and Luke we read that Shepherd heard about Jesus and came. Wisemen saw a star and followed it to where baby Jesus was lying in a manger… a feeding trough; in a sable, which was probably a cave where someone kept their animals.

That’s way we have the picture of a manger and a stable and the animals; along with the Shepherds and Wisemen.

Do you believe? The same question could be asked about Santa or Rudolph the red nose reindeer. Do you believe.

Illustration: I remember when I was little, my parents always took us to a Christmas Eve service and then we would drive around and look at Christmas lights. One night, we came upon Santa and his sleigh. As soon as my Mom saw it she said to my Dad stop! It caught my attention big time. I still remember, we were quite a distance away, so from a little boy’s perspective, it was real. I still remember my parents saying to me and my siblings, Dad better turn around… we don’t want to scare Santa, or be able to finish his rounds and come to our house. I was an open wide eyed little boy.

I tell you the story simply to say, my parents firmly believed in God; in Jesus, but they still wanted me to enjoy the idea of Santa. Of course we all come to know that Santa is a figment of one’s imagination… or is he?

I was an open wide eyed little boy.

Well, here are the facts… The idea of Santa Clause came about in … The legend of Santa Claus can be traced back hundreds of years to a monk named St. Nicholas. It is believed that Nicholas was born sometime around 280 A.D. in Patara, near Myra in modern-day Turkey. Much admired for his piety and kindness, St. Nicholas became the subject of many legends. It is said that he gave away all of his inherited wealth and traveled the countryside helping the poor and sick.

Over the course of many years, Nicholas’s popularity spread and he became known as the protector of children and sailors. His feast day is celebrated on the anniversary of his death, December 6.

St. Nicholas made his first inroads into American popular culture towards the end of the 18th century. In December 1773, and again in 1774, a New York newspaper reported that groups of Dutch families had gathered to honor the anniversary of his death.

The name Santa Claus evolved from Nick’s Dutch nickname, Sinter Klaas, a shortened form of Sint Nikolaas (Dutch for Saint Nicholas).

In 1804, John Pintard, a member of the New York Historical Society, distributed woodcuts of St. Nicholas at the society’s annual meeting. The background of the engraving contains now-familiar Santa images including stockings filled with toys and fruit hung over a fireplace. In 1809, Washington Irving helped to popularize the Sinter Klaas stories when he referred to St. Nicholas as the patron saint of New York in his book, The History of New York.

Gift-giving, mainly centered around children, has been an important part of the Christmas celebration since the holiday’s rejuvenation in the early 19th century. Stores began to advertise Christmas shopping in 1820, and by the 1840s, newspapers were creating separate sections for holiday advertisements, which often featured images of the newly-popular Santa Claus. In 1841, thousands of children visited a Philadelphia shop to see a life-size Santa Claus model. It was only a matter of time before stores began to attract children, and their parents, with the lure of a peek at a “live” Santa Claus. In the early 1890s, the Salvation Army needed money to pay for the free Christmas meals they provided to needy families. They began dressing up unemployed men in Santa Claus suits and sending them into the streets of New York to solicit donations. Those familiar Salvation Army Santas have been ringing bells on the street corners of American cities ever since.

In 1881, political cartoonist Thomas Nast drew on Moore’s poem to create the first likeness that matches our modern image of Santa Claus. His cartoon, which appeared in Harper’s Weekly, depicted Santa as a rotund, cheerful man with a full, white beard, holding a sack laden with toys for lucky children.

18th-century America’s Santa Claus was not the only St. Nicholas-inspired gift-giver to make an appearance at Christmastime. There are similar figures and Christmas traditions around the world. Christkind or Kris Kringle was believed to deliver presents to well-behaved Swiss and German children. Meaning “Christ child,” Christkind is an angel-like figure often accompanied by St. Nicholas on his holiday missions.

Now you didn’t come here today to learn about Santa, but I share this with you because it too is a recorded event. However, it is about a person who evolved into becoming the make believe Santa that we know today around the world.

The Story around the birth of Jesus dates back to the beginning of Time, before there was anything ever created. In John we see that same phrase “In the Beginning.” in we read that God created the heavens and the earth. In we read that All things where made through him and that without him was not any thing made that was made.”

Do you believe this? Do you believe where God says, “I am the Alpha and Omega (The first and the last) who is and who was and who is to come.”

The Bible is the revelation of God… John, who wrote the Gospel of John and the Book of Revelation, reveals to us what he himself bore witness to God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ and to all that he saw.

Revelation 1:2 NIV

2 who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

The word Revelation comes from the Greek word apokalupsis ‘apo’ meaning ‘out of’ and kalupsis ‘hiding’) (literally means - “Out of hiding”

Through the Bible, God has taken off the veil for us to know the truth of who He is and who His Son Jesus is.

Jesus is the common thread throughout the Bible = from OT to NT. The story of Jesus has been verified by eyewitness account; historical and archeological evidence.

There is a book known as the ‘Codex Sinaiticus, commonly called the Sinai Bible, dating back to 330 AD. It is one of the world’s most important and treasured books as it is the only early manuscript of the Christian Bible that is still largely intact. The book is a handwritten copy of the Bible in the ancient Greek text of Septuagint, which was originally made by four scribes sometime in the 4th century.

The book is considered to be one of the best Greek texts of the New Testament and been useful in aiding biblical text research. Although large portions of the Old Testament are missing from the book, scholars believe that the book originally contained both Testaments.

There are two other books that date back to BC. One 500 BC found in Italy and another 600 BC found in Bulgaria. Both are made of Gold

The Septuagint was made f papyrus.

The Oldest known bound book made in mass production was the Gutenberg Bible printed in Germany printed by Johannes Gutenberg, who invented the printing press and started the Printing Revolution, around 1450 – 1455.

I share all of this during this Christmas Season, because of the Question? Who do you believe God is? Who do you believe Jesus is? Was Jesus part of creation? Did God really send his ‘One and Only Son’ to die for our sins because he loves us? Wouldn’t he love his Son more? Why would he send him? Why would he sacrifice him?

The answer is simply if you believe in what the Bible says… Because he loves you! The Bible says, “God is love.” Not that its just part of his Character. It is who he is. The Bible says that Love covers a multitude of sin. That means in love; out of love he came to give his life; pay the price for our sin which is death, so that we could have eternal life, without sin.

We live in a sinful, broken world where our relationship with God has been broken when Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It separated all of us from God. Even our best days and greatest intentions will not merit us heaven. That is what Jesus was telling Nicodemus. He might have been a religious man, knew the OT inside and out, but he did not yet know Jesus. he had to take Jesus at his word and believe.

So do we. That is what Christmas brings us back too. Not to Saint Nickolas, even though Santa Clause is fabricated from a real saint. it is about Jesus, who is the real One and Only Divine Son of God.

If you believe in Him as God and Jesus Himself said about themselves, then you will be save by faith, through repentance of your sins, which means you agree with God that you cannot save yourself, but you need him; you cannot continue to live an intentional sinful life expecting to be saved. You must be born again and allow the transformation of your being into the person who genuinely follows Jesus - A Christian “Christ like.”