A, Lent 2- John 3:1-17 "Unbinding Nicodemus' Flesh"

John 3:11–15 (ESV)  Truly (Amen), truly (Amen), 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.

Nicodemus was a champion of the Israelites.  He was a pharisee, and a leader.   He was victorious amongst those bound together by their Jewish culture and temple practice.  He was a leader and a ruler in Jewish society.  And he comes to Jesus at night.

This man of God’s people comes to Jesus somewhat confused, not knowing who this Jesus is, but knowing to do the signs Jesus was doing, he had to be somehow connected with God.  But how?   It appears Jesus mysterious signs were amazing the Jews but at the same time confounding and mystifying them.

The language of signs is right the way through John’s Gospel.  The first sign recorded in John’s Gospel is the Wedding at Cana in Galilee where Jesus turns water in to wine.  The second is in the temple at the Passover, when Jesus overturns the trading tables and is asked for a sign as to why he acted so destructively.  He gives a sign by saying, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” (John 3:19 ESV)

We are told by the author of the Gospel of John, as a side note, that the disciples only realised Jesus was talking about the temple of his body after he was raised from the dead. 

We are told many believed as a result of his signs.  But we know the disciples did not yet believe the Scriptures, until the after the resurrection.  Therefore, we know the belief of those who saw the signs with the disciples was bound in the sinful thoughts of humanity too.

It seems that Jesus had a problem proclaiming the Good News.  How could he unwrap years of Jewish expectation and assumptions?  A problem that every evangelist faces when they are called to take the Good News of Jesus Christ into a culture bound up by its expectations and understanding.

We hear of Jesus, “Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.  But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.” (John 2:23–25 ESV)

These are the verses immediately prior to Nicodemus coming to Jesus.  Therefore, we know Nicodemus was bound in the same thoughts as everyone else at the Passover.  We do not know what the motivation was for  Nicodemus’ coming to Jesus.  We are not told whether he was spying on behalf of the Pharisees or if he was genuinely interested in following Jesus.  But, regardless of the reason he came to Jesus at night, we know he and Joseph of Arimathea lovingly took Jesus from the cross and prepared his body, binding and burying it in the tomb.

Jesus’ word to Nicodemus did its work on unbinding Nicodemus!  A Pharisee bound in Jewish tradition and leadership would not have become associated with a dead human body during the Passover preparation and then expect to celebrate the Passover meal.  Something had to of changed within Nicodemus to unbind him from his temple tradition to allow him to do what he did.

What was it in Jesus’ word that had effect on him?  As I mentioned earlier it seemed Jesus had a problem in bringing the Gospel of salvation to a man who was a champion in the teachings of Jewish Law and culture.  But something had changed.  What is it in Jesus’ word that brings change, brings faith, belief?

Jesus says to Nicodemus, “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” (John 3:12 ESV)

This question captures the struggle Jesus had with Nicodemus, and indeed, the difficulty anyone has in taking the Gospel to those whose ears, have not heard it, or, are closed to hearing it, as a result of cultural conditioning from their environment.

But Jesus launches straight into the heart of the matter to begin unbinding Nicodemus.  He makes three personal, “truly, truly, yes, yes, amen, amen” statements.

The first: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  (John 3:3 ESV)

The second: 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.” (John 3:5–6 ESV)

And the third:  “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.” (John 3:11–15 ESV)

Three times Jesus addresses Nicodemus, but the third time the culture and history of Jewish teaching in Moses’ lifting up a bronze serpent in the wilderness, together with the lifting up of the Son of Man is brought into the light.

A great practical thing happens in these threefold, yes, yes, truly, truly, amen, amen proclamations.  In his word, Jesus announces the Holy Spirit.  But, at the same time the Holy Spirit is deposited within Nicodemus through his word.  From this deposit to Jesus’ death and resurrection and beyond, the Holy Spirit is the one who unbinds Nicodemus. 

Ironically, the one who is unbound by Jesus’ word and the Holy Spirit, binds Jesus, after he was taken from the cross and prepared with expensive spices, then placed in the tomb.

What Jesus says is true!  We do not know how the Holy Spirit works.  But in hearing the Word we know faith is given, in hearing the gospel the Holy Spirit works!  How does one believe earthly things and heavenly things?  Through the work of the Holy Spirit together as one hears the Word of God!

You and I are called to hear God’s word.  In God’s Word we trust the Spirit is given and works in us.  This first happened with water and the Word.  Together with the water and the Word, the Spirit was given in Baptism.  Now every time we hear the “yes, yes, truly, truly, or amen, amen” of God’s Word of forgiveness, we know the Holy Spirit is given and is raising faith within us.  Like Nicodemus we are being unbound to be victorious among God’s people.

As we leave here today and head back out into the culture around us.  You and I know we take the “yes, yes” of God with us.  When you engage with your family, your work colleagues, or those with whom God decides you to cross paths, trust that the Holy Spirit will give you the ability to speak the words and be the person through whom eternal life can flow.  Through whom the love of God can declare, “Yes, truly, amen, your sins are forgiven when you believe.  And “Yes, truly, amen, belief is possible” in those who are receiving the Gospel because the Holy Spirit, opens hearts with the Word of God, when you speak it.   

When Jesus was raised from the dead, he was born again.  Before he died, he was washed in the sin of humanity, yet he faithfully allowed the Holy Spirit to lead him without sin.  He was baptised into death and having laid down his life in love, God the Holy Spirit raised him up.  The temple was destroyed, and God raised it up.  He raised it on Easter morning, he raised this temple in Nicodemus with the Holy Spirit, and in the same way he raises it in you and me. 

We can now let God use us, to raise his temple in those he seeks to build with the Holy Spirit, in the yes, yes, truly, truly, amen, amen of sin’s forgiveness and eternal life.  

Like Nicodemus you have been unbound so you are victorious in God’s kingdom.  What a privilege and joy it is to be the instruments of the Holy Spirit in giving the same victory to others.  Amen.

C, Commemoration of the Reformation - John 8:31-36 "Unhidden Truth"

John 8:31–36 (ESV)  Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,  and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”  Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practises sin is a slave to sin.  The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever.  So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Jesus speaks to the Jews who believed him.  Beforehand when he spoke, he sought to convince those who did not believe him.

We hear in John chapter seven, “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”  Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified”.  (John 7:37–39 ESV)

For the moment, I want you to hear him refer to “living waters”, but also note Jesus’ reference to the Spirit, which is the Holy Spirit.  I will speak more about the Holy Spirit later, in relation to the Reformation and Martin Luther.

With Jesus’ promise of “living water” flowing out of those who believe in him, he also says, “I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”  (John 8:12 ESV)

Whoever believes in Jesus Christ, “living water” will flow out of them, and whoever follows Jesus Christ will have the “light of life.”  Living light and living waters!  Life-giving waters, life-giving light!

The Pharisees did not want to believe and said to Jesus, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true”.  (John 8:13 ESV)

Jesus then addresses the hearers concerning his and God’s truth.  To those Jews who believed, he concludes his monologue, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”.  (John 8:31–32 ESV)

I invite you to revisit John 8:12-36 and notice the word “truth or true”, how many times it occurs and how Jesus refocuses truth on his knowledge.  In fact, a thematic thread concerning truth, flows throughout John’s Gospel. 

Fifty-five references focus the hearer of John’s Gospel on truth or what is true.  Some will be quite familiar to you.  “I am the way the truth and the life” (John 14:6), “Sanctify them in the truth your word is truth” (John 17:17), and Jesus’ and Pilate’s exchange, “[Jesus answered…] I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth…”  Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” (John 18:37b–38a ESV)

So as Pilate asks, we can ask, “What is truth?” How does “truth” connect with the freedom Jesus proclaims to us?  Plus, how has this truth and freedom come to us through the Reformation and writings of Martin Luther as well as others of the Reformation?  

Let’s return to the passage before us today.  “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,  and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  (John 8:31 ESV)

Three times “true or truth” is mentioned in this verse.  In the New Testament there are two words used for truth.  One of these words is borrowed from the Hebrew, and is often doubled for emphasis, in the same way as we use adverbs.  This is the word “Amen”.  We hear it said, “Truly, truly, or verily, verily, or amen, amen, depending on your bible’s translation.  It means, “Yes!  It is so!”

The other, which occurs fifty-five times in John is the Greek word, alethes (al-ay-thace), which is two words, the first being the negative, “not”, and lanthano meaning “to lie or hide”.

This makes Pilate’s question to Jesus, “What is truth?”, shine with all the double-speak and sarcasm of politicians throughout the ages.  “What is not a lie or what is not hidden?  Everything is hidden and a lie of sorts!”

But it also sheds light on the purity of Jesus’ word too.  If you abide in Jesus’ word, you are his unhidden disciples, and you will know what is unhidden, you will know what is not a lie, and these words that unhide, that are not a lie, will set you free!  Jesus’ word unhides, it exposes and reveals, and in doing so it gives freedom. 

This is the opposite of what one would expect.  A full disclosure or confession is what Adam and Eve feared most leading them to hide from God.  But now Jesus’ word unhides so we can be covered with his robes of justification and righteousness.

The question also must be asked, “What needs to be unhidden?  What has kept us from the freedom to which Jesus points us?”

Jesus makes it quite clear that we lose our freedom through sin.  He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin”.  (John 8:34 ESV)

Amen, Amen, yes, yes, sin keeps us from freedom, Jew or Gentile, man or woman, adult or child, pastor, or parishioner!  All, but Jesus, are enslaved to sin!  All, but Jesus, hide and lie!  What is truth?  What is not hidden?  What is not a lie?  Jesus Christ Son of God and Son of Man is truth personified, unhidden, without a lie.

He is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth!  Our help from God! 

“Yes, your honour, I do the crimes, but my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, has done the time!”

Now that Jesus has been glorified at the right hand of our Father in heaven, and we have access to him by faith alone, we have been given the Holy Spirit to bring us to him.  With Jesus, he justifies and makes you righteous with his blood.

The Holy Spirit brings us to the living waters.  He continually proceeds from God the Father and God the Son to bring us, out of our darkness of sin, into the light of life.  He does this by faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone, and Scripture alone!

The Reformation was a realignment back under Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.  Martin Luther was born into a Christian Church that had lost Jesus Christ.  He was still there, knocking on the door of people’s hearts.  But he had been covered up by humanity’s love of goodness borne in the righteousness of the self.

The Christian church was being enslaved by sin, while individuals within Christendom had lost their freedom through faith being replaced with the desire of one’s own feelings.

In practice, they had replaced the Holy Spirit who calls, gathers, enlightens, makes holy and forgives, with the human spirit who desires through self-love to climb up to God.  The starting point and the goal of this desire was egocentric.  Human desire and the satisfaction of this want was the goal. 

Humanity had become enslaved to itself in the church.  Humanity needed to be set free from itself so the one true Holy Spirit could once again lead us to the unhidden, one true body, one true hope, one true faith, one true Lord Jesus Christ, who puts us right, and justifies us in one baptism, before the one true Father and God of heaven. 

Because the devil and the world wills your old Adam to rise up against the baptism in which he was drowned, you and I need to daily welcome his death through the truth of confessing sin, having the lie and liar within exposed, and having the truth within ourselves unhidden.  Jesus’ unhidden truth kills sin and our old selfish selves with his light and life.

We cannot climb up to God through our own desire, the truth of our sinful nature is that we are too weighed down by sin to climb anywhere, let alone up to him.  Believing we can, and working accordingly, is believing a lie, wastes time, and distracts us from receiving God from where he is given.

As children of the Reformation, we are called to wash our robes in Jesus’ righteousness.  The Holy Spirit is the only spirit that will lead us to do this.  Left to our own spirit we will end up seeking to wash our robes in our own righteousness, where we find ourselves being enslaved by a lie once again.  Our own spirit will see us hidden again from living free to be in Jesus Christ.

So, practise your freedom!   Be true Christians!  Reveal, repent, reform each day under Jesus Christ.  Remain in God’s word, in Jesus Christ.  Be disciples, disciplined to receive God’s love.  Walk in your true unhidden weakness with Jesus Christ, with God’s Word made flesh.  If you want to put on the truth of Jesus in your life; read, study, and listen to God’s written Word!

Jesus’ life and death is for you, and it will set you free.  Amen.

Lord God Holy Spirit, free us from ourselves to receive the true life-giving waters, the true life-giving light that comes into the darkness of our days and lifts us into an eternity of light and life where you reign, together with the Father and the Son, one God, now and forever, truly, truly, Amen, and Amen!