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04.12.09

Easter

SERMON SERIES: ON THE ROAD TO THE CROSS

PART 7: NICODEMUS

MATTHEW 28:1-10; JOHN 3:1-16

• The Road to the Cross
• Our Lenten Journey
• During this season of Lent, we have been traveling with Jesus on the road to the cross
• We have met a number of the people Jesus met along that road
• We have looked at how their lives were touched and changed by their encounter with Jesus so that we might apply the lessons of those encounters to our own lives
• The rich young man taught us about commitment and the cost involved in surrendering our life to Jesus
• From the story of the adulterous woman, we experienced the power of forgiveness and learned not to be too quick to judge others for their sins since we are guilty of sin ourselves
• As we witnessed Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well, we, too, were offered the gift of living water—that water that flows from the Spirit of God—which gives new life and provides joy and purpose for living
• Next, we encountered Zebedee’s wife and listened to her request that her sons might reign in power with Jesus in his kingdom
• From Jesus’ response to her request, we discovered that true greatness doesn’t come from position and power; true greatness is achieved through our willingness to selflessly serve
• From the trial of Jesus in front of Caiaphas, the high priest, we learned that the road to the cross is the road of suffering
• Because Jesus suffered, we, too, will suffer, but that suffering is never without purpose—although we might not see the purpose at the time—and we never suffer alone
• By watching Simon of Cyrene carry the cross for Jesus, we discovered that the road to the cross is the road of cross-bearing, and if we are going to travel that road with Jesus, we must be willing to carry the cross for Jesus, even if it means sacrificing our life for him, just as he sacrificed his life for us
• The Road Beyond the Cross
• Although we have traveled with Jesus to the cross and witnessed his death on Calvary on that Friday when the sky turned black, the cross is not the end of the story—the road doesn’t end at Calvary
• If the death of Jesus was the end of the story, all we would have is a dead hero, another martyr who died for what he believed
• If that’s all we’re left with, then the world would be the same as it has always been—nothing would be different
• In a certain sense, the Jews of Jesus’ day were right in their thinking that a dead hero was of no value to anyone, but what they missed—what they refused to recognize—is that Jesus did not stay dead
• On the morning of the first day of the week, this Jesus who was crucified rose from the dead to new life, making him a mightier conqueror than the world has ever seen because through his resurrection Jesus sets us free from those three things that have held humanity captive since the beginning of time—sin, death, and the grave
• The road to the cross doesn’t end at Calvary; the road to the cross ends at the open and empty tomb
• Without the resurrection, there would be no Christian faith
• The world doesn’t need another dead hero—we have more than enough of them
• What the world needs is a living Savior, One who has defeated sin and death, One who can give us new life and bring meaning and purpose to our living, and who can guarantee for us eternal life with God when our earthly life comes to an end
• Without the victory Jesus won for us through his cross and resurrection, we would be people with no hope at all
• As we look beyond the cross to the empty tomb, we can clearly see that suffering is not without purpose and that life does not end in death
• Beyond the dark clouds of our Fridays is the beautiful sunrise of a new day filled with new life and new possibilities, all because Jesus, God’s Son, rose from the dead
• Rebirth
• Encountering the Empty Tomb
• On that first Easter morning, as the women went to the tomb, we have to wonder what they were expecting to find there
• Other Gospel writers tell us that they carried spices with them to complete the preparation of the body for burial since Jesus was buried so hastily on Friday
• They also tell us that, while they journeyed, they wondered how they would move that heavy stone the soldiers used to seal the tomb
• It certainly seems that they expected to find a dead Jesus, not a living Savior
• They went there to mourn the loss of life, not to experience the gift of new life
• Yet, over the past several weeks, Jesus told them repeatedly that he must go to Jerusalem, that he would suffer and die, and on the third day he would be raised to new life again
• They understood the first two points of what Jesus said, but how could they miss the importance of that third point?
• If they truly believed that Jesus was the Son of God, they shouldn’t have been surprised to find the tomb empty and to see Jesus alive again
• We are not much different than those women
• Many of us still look at the cross and see it as an instrument of death
• We see a dying Jesus hanging there, and we miss the hope and promise of new life the cross brings to us
• We stand in the cemetery and gaze into an open grave, knowing that very soon it will hold the body of the one we have loved
• Our vision is limited to what we see and know, and experience tells us that death is the end
• Only through eyes of faith and belief in the resurrection of Jesus can we see beyond our immediate pain and know that on the other side of suffering and death there is new life, new hope, and new possibilities
• Born From Above
• One of the other people Jesus met on the road to the cross was Nicodemus
• Most of what we know about him is contained in our text from the Gospel of John
• Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin—that group that would ultimately sentence Jesus to death
• We also know that Nicodemus came to see Jesus at night
• In this first encounter with Jesus, Nicodemus comes to do some investigating
• The Pharisees had already begun to hear about this new teacher and the miracles he performed, and the Sanhedrin had the authority to “license” new teachers to teach, if their teaching was in line with the Torah
• So Nicodemus came to Jesus, partly to investigate this new teacher
• But since he came under the cover of darkness, it seems that Nicodemus wanted to believe in him but was afraid to do so publicly
• Later, we learn that Nicodemus came to Jesus’ defense during a meeting of the Sanhedrin, and, at least for a time, persuaded the Jewish authorities to leave him alone
• And we also learn, after the crucifixion, Nicodemus assisted Joseph of Arimathea with the burial of Jesus, so perhaps Nicodemus became a believer after all
• At the heart of his conversation with Jesus is Jesus’ teaching about being born again
• As a Pharisee, Nicodemus believed that he already had a place in the kingdom of God because of his strict adherence to the Law, so Jesus’ words were shocking to him when he said, “No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
• Nicodemus, of course, is thinking about a physical rebirth, which is why he says, “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be reborn.”
• But Jesus is not speaking of a physical rebirth, he’s speaking of something different altogether—he’s speaking of the spiritual birth that is necessary in order to live a life that is pleasing to God
• The Greek word translated “again” has three different meanings
• It can mean from the beginning, completely radically; it can mean again, in the sense of for a second time; and it can mean from above, and therefore, from God
• Our English translation doesn’t allow for all three of these meanings, yet all of them are in the phrase born again
• William Barclay says, “To be born anew is to undergo such a radical change that it is like a new birth; it is to have something happen to the soul which can only be described as being born all over again; and the whole process is not a human achievement, because it comes from the grace and power of God.”
• This new birth is possible only through water and the Spirit
• Water is obviously a symbol of cleansing, and it alludes to our baptism in Christ
• In Christ we are washed clean from the sin that stains our life
• But that washing alone is not enough for rebirth to occur, for it is easy for something that’s clean to get dirty again
• That washing must also be accompanied by the Spirit because it is only through the power of the Spirit working in us that we are able to avoid having our lives stained again
• To illustrate his point, Jesus uses the example of wind
• It blows wherever it wants, and we can see its effects, but we can’t see the wind itself—we don’t know where it comes from or where it is going
• The same is true of the Spirit
• We certainly cannot see the Spirit of God, and we do not understand how the Spirit works, but we can see the evidence of the Spirit working in the lives of those who have been radically changed by the Spirit’s power
• It’s this cleansing from sin and the power of the Holy Spirit working in us that causes this rebirth and gives new life and new hope
• And this new life and hope is only possible because of the death and resurrection of Jesus
• Only through his death and resurrection is the Holy Spirit made available to all who believe
• If Jesus did not rise from the dead, nothing would be different
• There would be no hope and no possibility of new and abundant living in this life or in the life to come
• Life Through God’s Love
• Our text concludes with the most well known and best loved verse in the Bible: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believe in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
• This is the message of Easter—this is what Christian faith is all about
• Our salvation is not about what we can do for ourselves; it’s about what God has already done and what God will continue to do for us through Jesus Christ
• And the reason God has done these things is purely because God loves us
• It is God’s love that gave us life in the first place, and it is God’s love that renews and restores our life when we trust our life to God through faith in Jesus Christ
• When we have been born from above, we receive the gift of eternal life—and to have eternal life is nothing less than to share in the very life of God, both in this life and in the life to come

                             The road to the cross is the road to rebirth

• In order to experience that rebirth, we must first come to terms with the suffering and death of Jesus
• We must realize that his suffering and death was for each of us personally, and that when Jesus died, we died with him
• But we cannot stop there because Jesus’ life did not end when he died on the cross
• The road to the cross moves beyond the cross to the open and empty tomb
• That is where our victory occurs
• Since we died with Christ to sin, we will be raised with Christ to new life
• That is the promise of the gospel