Otterbein Memorial Day

John 3:1-17

Introduction

update on YL

camp

wing a thon

John 3:16 one of the most famous verses in all of scripture. But most of us don’t know the setting around this verse. Why is it in there, what happened that it was placed in john chapter 3 (verses and chapters were added later) why is it so famous?

Before we look at that, I want to share a story with you.

Story night time visit

John K. needed answers. He needed to do something. He was confused about God’s plan and where Jesus fit into it.

At the end of the day, we dropped her off at a shelter with food and some new clothes.

I’ll never forget that night time visit. The questions he asked and the authenticity of his wrestling was beautiful and led to him experiencing Jesus in a new way.

Just as my friend wrestled with the love of God and his own personal experience, we are going to look at a man named Nicodemus who did the same.

John 3:1-4

Nicodemus, a jewish leader and member of the ruling counsil visits Jesus at night time and honors him by calling him Rabbi, he even acknowledges that he comes from God. He even asks questions!

Instead of saying “thank you”, Jesus asks him a question.

He doesn’t need more praise, even though he deserves it, he wants you to know him. If you hear anything today, I hope you hear that Jesus wants you to experience him and know him by grace through faith in his death and resurrection. It isn’t enough to know Jesus as an honorable person, or coming from God, Jesus desires for you to know him as the author of life and the King of this world in which he defeated sin on the cross and conquered death in his resurrection.

Nicodemus was probably a better guy than most of us in this room, but his security was in how he fulfilled and lived up to rules, not faith in God’s faithfulness to save us.

The Gospel according to John (5. Jesus and Nicodemus (3:1–15))

If Nicodemus, with his knowledge, gifts, understanding, position and integrity cannot enter the promised kingdom by virtue of his standing and works, what hope is there for anyone who seeks salvation along such lines? Even for a Nicodemus, there must be a radical transformation, the generation of new life, comparable with physical birth. Barrett (p. 206) finely cites Calvin: ‘by the term born again He means not the amendment of a part but the renewal of the whole nature. Hence it follows that there is nothing in us that is not defective’ (Calvin, 1. 63).

The Gospel according to John 5. Jesus and Nicodemus (3:1–15)

For a man like Nicodemus, entering the kingdom of God did not have to do with the transformation of an individual’s character but with participation in the resurrection life of the new order God would powerfully bring about at the end of history.

John 5-9

Born of water and spirit?

How can this be?

John the baptist leading a revival movement…he was pointing to Jesus, everyone was trying to figure out what this all meant. Jesus was redefining God’s plan from humanities perspective.

As we are about to hear, Jesus came for all the world, not an exclusive group, so that the entire creation would be transformed. To become a part of this new creation, one has to be renewed by the holy spirit through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Could you imagine the shock if someone tried to redefine memorial day to mean anyone whom died? The American people would be shocked and the military families would be in horror. But here is the thing, Jesus redefined Kingdom to the shock and horror of the Jewish leaders. Not so much redefined, but corrected their skewed perception of Jesus’s kingdom.

Jesus finishes this conversation explaining how he was reconciling the world to God. God loves this world, his love changes this world, because his Kingdom is a Kingdom of change.

Those entering it are changed by the spirit and the Kingdom to come changes this world. We see glimmers of it but we still long for it’s completion. Are you apart of bringing God’s Kingdom on earth by loving and sharing the love of Christ. Those 2 cannot be separated.

Nicodemus ends this conversation struggling to understand the spiritual need for rebirth in order to enter into God’s Kingdom. He was Jewish, this seemed to contradict what he knew of being “God’s people”

Throughout the Gospel of John we see Nicodemus reapprea

John 7:50-52 He defends Jesus before the Pharisees and pleads that Jesus should receive a fair trail if arrested.

eIn John 19:39-42 Nicodemus brings 75 pounds of Myrrh and aloes to prepare Jesus’ body for burial, and John at this point calls Nicodemus a disciple. The amount of spice was only fitting for a royal burial, thus we acknowledge that Nicodemus found Jesus to indeed be the messiah and was indeed King.

The faith journey of Nicodemus is important because it shows us that God welcomes our doubts and confusion into his story of grace.

It is not enough to know that God loved the world John 3:16-17 says, we must know his love for us and experience his great love through his church.

Only when we know and experience his love for us can we love each other. Trust me, people are waiting to experience it everywhere we live.

-story of Charley

i felt like a failure.

God showed up big. He is faithful. It is our job to remain faithful to his work, regardless of what it looks like.

love requires relational closeness

closeness results in tension

Just as my friend needed answers and was wrestling with questions, Nicodemus was wrestling with Questions and I think we often wrestle with questions about God and his love for us, his creation, and the pain we feel. Memorial day is a day of morning and celebrating those that have fought and died for our country. It is a hard holiday for a lot of us. We hold it in tension that their sacrifice was not in vain. We experience the freedom, hopefully, from their sacrifice.

I want to finish with this text from Isaiah because it shows us the tension of scriptures promises and the world we live in. King Uzziah just died, he reigned from when he was 16 years old to 68 years old..52 years and he was one of the very few good kings.

Isaiah 6:1–8 NIV

1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” 4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

Even in our most scared times of uncertainty, God’s love remains faithful.

Let’s pray