The Nicodemus Conversation: Sermon John 3:1-17

If you had the opportunity to have a conversation with Jesus, what would you ask him? Many Christians have thought about this scenario many times. Several songs, including a big hit “I Can Only Imagine” have been written about meeting Jesus face to face. If Jesus were to knock on your door and have a cup of coffee with you, what would you talk about? Would you ask him about the future? Would you ask him about loved ones that have left? I have thought many times about all the questions I would ask Jesus when I get to meet him.

Well, the man in our story today had just that opportunity. Jesus has entered Jerusalem with a big splash. In the Gospel of John, Jesus enters Jerusalem at the beginning of his ministry not toward the end overturns the money changers tables. After the confrontation at the Temple, Jesus became the talk of the town. Everyone wondered about this young upstart from the country. Most of the Jewish authorities began to see Jesus as a threat, but one in particular became very interested in what his rabbi had to say.

Nicodemus was an older man. The Bible says that he was a ruler or a leader of the Jews, which probably meant that he was a member of the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was a council based out of the Temple who was given judicial authority in Jerusalem, by the Roman government. This was the same group that would try and convict Jesus in a few years. So Nicodemus was a prominent man in the community. He had spent most of his life studying the Torah or the Law of Moses, which we know today as the first five books of the Old Testament, so Nicodemus was extremely well versed in the laws of the Jewish people.

You see the Jewish people at that time, and especially the higher class Pharisees, were almost obsessed with the study and the keeping up with the law. The Ten Commandments were a good starting point, but these commandments lacked the detail that the Jews were looking for and so they came up with a supplement to the Book of the Law which was called the Mishnah. This book put into incredible detail the laws of the land. For example, the commandment to keep the Sabbath day holy was too vague and so details had to be added. For example, you could not sew or remove more than two threads from a garment. You could not carry anything with you, even a bed mat, we remember the man that Jesus healed on the Sabbath and told him to pick up his mat and go home. The man got into trouble with the Jewish authorities because he was working on the Sabbath. The point I am trying to make is this, the Jewish people believed their salvation depended on the learning and keeping of the laws set forth by God. They were concerned about the physical world and their actions in this world.

This is the mentality that Nicodemus had when he went to seek out Jesus. His mind was focused on the physical world and not of spiritual things. So he goes out at night, because he dare not jeopardize his reputation by being seen talking with Jesus, and he finds Jesus, but what should he say. So Nicodemus thinks he can catch more flies with honey and he can with vinegar and so he pays Jesus a compliment. He says that Jesus must be sent from God, because no one can do the things Jesus does apart from the power of God. This differs from the opinion of some of Nicodemus’ colleagues who claim Jesus is from Satan or some other place apart from God. But I think Nicodemus did see something special in Jesus.

Jesus responds not with a “thank you” or even a “Hi. How are you?” Instead, Jesus really blows Nicodemus’ mind. He says “No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above”. I can imagine the look the Nicodemus gives Jesus and I can also imagine the Nicodemus was probably thinking “O.K. Maybe this guys is nuts.” Nicodemus doesn’t understand what Jesus is talking about because Jesus and Nicodemus are thinking on different levels. Nicodemus has spent his entire life focused on the physical world, specifically the law and order of this world. Jesus, on the other hand, is speaking of a different animal altogether, the spiritual realm.

Jesus mentions the Kingdom of God to Nicodemus. We remember that on Palm Sunday the people cheered Jesus because they thought that he was the new David sent to reclaim the kingdom of Israel on Earth, but in fact he came to usher in a new kingdom of God, a kingdom not of the physical but of the spiritual. The same thing was happening to Nicodemus, when Jesus said kingdom of God, Nicodemus probably thought Jesus was talking about the kingdom of Israel on Earth. Nicodemus thought when Jesus said “born from above” or another translation is “born anew”, he meant a physical birth. Nicodemus was imagining his mother giving birth to him now as an old man and was greatly perplexed. His mind was on the physical but Jesus was talking about the Spiritual.

There is a big difference between the physical world of the flesh and the heavenly world of the Spirit, Jesus calls this the Kingdom of God. This might seem an unnecessary statement but so many times we failed to fully understand what Jesus is saying because our minds are locked in the physical world and so we do not understand things spiritually. The Kingdom of God is a new way of thinking and a new way of seeing. The physical world is fully of violence and hatred. The physical world is fully of injustice and sorrow. We see the effects of the physical world, everyday on the news. Those in the physical world are programmed for selfishness. They believe that the only thing that is important is themselves and their happiness, with no concern for others. The physical world is full of conflict and war. The Kingdom of God is a place of peace. It is a place that the Bible tells us that no tears fall and no sadness is known. There is no pain, no sickness, and all people are treated like equals. It is the place that we have to look forward to. The Kingdom of God is that place where the streets are paved with gold and light of Christ is always around us. It is through spiritual not physical means that we will enter into the Kingdom of God.

That is what Nicodemus could not understand. He had spent his whole life keeping these physical laws in order to gain entrance to God’s kingdom, but he was beginning to realize his way wasn’t going to cut it. Jesus told Nicodemus that we must be spiritually reborn because we have to be deconstructed to our physical mindset and be reconstructed to a new way of thinking in the spiritual world. We have to die to this world and be reborn in the Spirit. That is how the connection is made with God and that is how we gain entrance to the Kingdom of God.

We must focus our minds to the Spiritual before we can truly understand what God wants for us in our lives. It is through the Spirit that we communicate with God. We cannot do this through physical means. We call God on his cell phone or shoot him an e-mail. Prayer is the way that we talk to God and prayer is done through the Spirit. Even though we speak the words out loud or to ourselves, it is the Holy Spirit in us that connects us with God. God knows what we will ask before we even ask it because we are connected to God through the Holy Spirit.

Jesus used the metaphor of birth to describe this change from the physical to the spiritual. He does this because just like a new baby has to grow physically, so do we have to grow spiritually after our rebirth. We will have to crawl before we walk, we will have to walk before we can run, and along the way there will be times when we slip and fall. Even as we get older we still slip up sometimes. The awesome thing is that the God we serve is always there to pick us up and sets us back on our feet. He is infinitely patient with us, but just like with a child, he wants to see us grow continually. You wouldn’t let your 10 year old still use diapers or carry him or her in a stroller and so it is with God. We must always grow spiritually, learning from our mistakes.

What must I do to enter the Kingdom of Heaven? A better question might be what must I do to be reborn? Several people asked Jesus this question. This is a question that is a sticking point between denominations. Some believe that one must be baptized before they are reborn, but the United Methodist belief and my belief is that we are already reborn when we surrender to the call of Jesus. The water we administer is just an outward sign of an inward promise, a physical sign of a spiritual change.

Are you focused physically or spiritually this morning? Are you problems in this world overwhelming your spiritual life? We all reach this point sometimes, even pastors. We must maintain our spiritual lives and keep our spiritual focus, because we never know what God might be trying to tell us today.